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Thesis : The energy concept : a spiritual 
interpretation of reality 

Submitted by Lewis Guy Rohrbaugh 
as partial fulfillment of the require- 
ments for the Ph. D. degree at the 
State University of Iowa 






LIBRARY OF rONC'^S? 

APR 1 6 192b 



i DOCUMENTS DIVISION 

'l iMiia n i ■ ■ i mm' i m um. -«. ■ 



Part I: DYNAMICS IN SCIENCE AND 
PHILOSOPHY 

Chapter I 

ENERGY AS REALITY 

Upon all sides to-day we hear emphasis put upon 
the energy concept in philosophy. Dynamism has super- 
seded materialism. Activism, voluntarism, pragma- 
tism, and philosophies of this active type are coming 
more and more to take the place of the older systems 
of mechanism. Students in philosophy are compelled 
to recognize the significant place which such systems 
as those of Leibnitz, Bergson, Ostwald, etc., are hold- 
ing in the field of modern thought. If Leibnitz' phi- 
losophy were to be re-stated to-day from the stand- 
point of modern scientific thought and terminology, it 
would probably be termed a system of Energism. 
With Bergson life is one continuous process of Becom- 
ing, and fundamental in this process is the guiding 
agent which he calls the vital impetus. So active and 
vital is this inner principle that it would seem impos- 
sible to think of Bergson's philosophy out of relation 
to the energy concept. With Ostwald, energy is the 
primary concept; everything that exists is but a part 
of a great system of energies. Such energetic concep- 
tions as these sound the keynote to modern philosophi- 

15 



16 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

cal thought and receive genuine support from recent 
scientific discoveries. 

In physical science we are told that matter, under 
the scrutiny of experimental physics, has resolved it- 
self into energy. When asked what this ultimate and 
final energy is, we are sometimes referred to another 
concept, that of electricity. And inasmuch as we shall 
endeavor to interpret reality in terms of energy and 
make a critical inquiry into the energy concept in its 
qualitative aspects, it becomes imperative therefore at 
this stage of philosophical inquiry to examine into this 
concept of energy and determine, if we can, its philoso- 
phical import. 

Philosophers have been concerned with the problem 
of reality since the earliest history of thought, and to 
the question, What is reality ? many and varied answers 
have been given. We find that in the approach to this 
problem the scientific understanding of the ancients 
presents an interesting contrast with that of to-day. 
Instead of the four elements of Empedocles — earth, 
air, fire, and water — more than ninety elements have 
been found, entering into the make-up of the earth and 
all existing objects. "The spectroscope tells us that in 
the most distant stars the same elements exist as here, 
and that the periods of vibrations which cause them 
to emit light are identical with those of their terrestrial 
representatives.' ' All material things can be analyzed 
and resolved into these ninety elements. 

In the philosophy of the early days we meet two 
opposing schools of thought — one teaching that every- 
thing is and nothing becomes; the other declaring that 
nothing is and everything is in a process of becoming. 



ENERGY AS REALITY 17 

Heracleitus, representing the latter school, believed all 
things to be in a state of flux; there is no such thing 
as rest. In this he anticipated a fundamental principle 
in modern science, for science to-day holds that matter 
is made up of a countless number of moving particles. 
In the decomposition and changes peculiar to inorganic 
matter, and in the myriads of living cells composing 
organic matter we find that there are no two successive 
moments when any single particle of substance fails to 
experience some genuine change. 

BRIEF STATEMENT CONCERNING THE ATOMIC THEORY 

As we proceed with our task it becomes evident that 
a study of the atomic theory, which has to do with the 
organization of these little moving particles, is funda- 
mental to any treatment which might be made of matter 
and any search for facts which have to do with ulti- 
mate reality. It is a long road, however, from Demo- 
critus, the first real exponent of Atomism, to the 
present time, and many and varied have been the 
interpretations made of this system along the 
way. 

With Democritus the atom is simply a hard little 
body moving mechanically through space. The atoms 
coming together are responsible for all changes. By 
this method in his system of materialism he would en- 
deavor to explain all phenomena, from the most simple 
external occurrences to the deepest experiences of the 
mental life. 

A new light was thrown on the atomic theory when 
Newton's law of gravitation took its place in the world 



18 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

of science. Instead of the atoms clashing at random 
and being held together in a chance way by means of 
their jagged surfaces, the element of attraction was 
introduced. "It was natural that, having explained 
the cosmical, and subsequently many terrestrial phe- 
nomena, successfully by the formula of attraction, 
Newton himself, and still more Laplace and his school, 
should have attempted the explanation of molecular 
phenomena by similar methods. The astronomical 
view spread into molecular physics. Newton himself 
made use of the notion of molecular attraction — i.e., 
of attraction existing only at very small distances — to 
explain the refraction and inflection of light passing 
from empty space, or from the atmosphere, into or in 
the neighborhood of solid bodies." 1 

Boscovich was among the first to lose faith in a de- 
pendence on the impact of the atoms; nor could he be 
satisfied with allowing them extension. He felt that 
the fundamental essence of matter was to be found in 
atom points, situated in space, from which, as a basis, 
repulsive forces operated. 

Dalton, who gave to each atom a definite weight, 
was responsible for the establishment of the atomic 
theory of the modern day. He taught that the small 
particles in all bodies are held together by an attractive 
force, and that there is also present and operating in 
matter a repulsive force. This introducing into the 
theory the element of forces was carried even further 
by such men as Fechner, Moigno, and Faraday, who 
would make the atoms simple centers of force, which 

1 Merz, History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, Vol. i, pp. 354-356. 



ENERGY AS REALITY 19 

closely approaches a system of dynamism and paves 
the way to the energy concept. 

In the analysis of substance according to the atomic 
theory, the smallest unit we meet is the molecule which 
can be further divided into atoms. In HN0 3 we have 
a molecule of nitric acid, containing one atom of hydro- 
gen, one of nitrogen, and three of oxygen. The mole- 
cules differ according to the number of atoms consti- 
tuting them. The atoms of the same element have 
been considered invariable in size, having a definite 
and fixed weight. It is believed to-day, however, that 
the so-called atomic weights are merely averages. 
Radium, thorium, and uranium have the heaviest atoms 
and hydrogen the lightest. "We are as certain of the 
existence of these atoms and of their uniformity and 
invariability as if we could count and measure them. 
Indeed they are actually counted in certain cases of 
radioactivity." 2 

THE ELECTRONIC THEORY 

The atomic theory has been a very profitable instru- 
ment in the hands of science for a long time, but ac- 
quired knowledge now enables us to make an analysis 
of Nature which transcends the limitations of the atom. 
Just as the molecule of substance was divided and the 
atom made the smallest measure of matter, so the 
atom to-day is analyzed and found to be composed of 
still smaller particles. 

One of the most remarkable pieces of work accom- 
plished by science in recent years has been this success- 

2 Soddy, Matter and Energy, p. 55. 



20 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

ful analysis of the atom. As the smallest unit of mat- 
ter entering into the make-up of the elements, the atom 
has lost its prestige, and science to-day is thinking in 
terms of the electron instead. It is the development of 
the electronic theory which has not only popularized 
the energy concept but given it a well established place 
in modern scientific discovery and thought. It has 
confirmed the long-held belief in the presence of a 
dynamic force in Nature, and seems to show that ulti- 
mate reality itself is identical with what science has 
been calling electricity, but now looks upon as some 
form of energy. 

According to Rutherford each atom is believed to 
be like a little solar system, being composed wholly of 
charges of negative electricity, electrons, revolving "in 
regular orbits" 3 about a core or nucleus which is a 
charge of positive electricity. More recent thought, 
however, is inclined to believe that the electrons are 
vibrating in certain regions, rather than revolving 
about a nucleus, within the atom. Motion results as 
the electrons repel each other and in their activities 
they are held in balance by the attraction of the posi- 
tive unit. It is thought that the negative charges are 
equal to the free positive charge of the nucleus and in 
this fact the atom realizes a possible equilibrium. 

Some writers consider the electron to be a unit of 
electricity whether negative or positive. For our pres- 
ent purpose we shall call only the unit of negative 
charge an electron. The electrons of the atom are all 
the same, no matter from whatever element's atoms 
they come. They are constituents of every atom, are 

3 Gibson, Scientific Ideas of To-day, p. 53. 



ENERGY AS REALITY 21 

real electricity, which flowing, constitute electric cur- 
rent. 

Concerning the nucleus of the atom, science does not 
have full knowledge. We are sure, however, that it is 
electricity and predominantly positive. In this nucleus 
have been found electrons which under certain condi- 
tions are set free. This core or positive charge is less 
than one ten thousandth the diameter of the atom and 
numerically equal to one half the atomic weight, 4 
while "the whole atom is perhaps one hundred thou- 
sand times as large in diameter as the electrons." 5 

The velocity of the electrons in their flight is almost 
inconceivable; thus they occupy but small space and 
constitute a solid. The immense possible velocity is 
suggested in the statement that "the velocity of the 
electron when impelled by strong electric force may 
reach sixty thousand miles per second when shot 
through a vacuum, the better the vacuum the higher 
the speed." e 

Under certain conditions atoms gain and lose elec- 
trons. Sometimes the negative charges predominate 
and sometimes the positive, according to whether the 
atom has taken on or given off electrons. Some ele- 
ments will give up electrons quicker than others. The 
stronger a metal, the stronger the tendency to give 
up electrons when exposed to the impact of light. The 
latest theory of color is based on the principle of the 
looseness of the electrons in the atom. The weight it- 
self of an element is determined by the electrons. 
Thompson says "the atomic weight of an element is 

4 Stewart, The Homiletic Review, Oct., 1914. 

5 Mills, The Realities of Modern Science, p. 90. 

6 Gibson, Scientific Ideas of To-day. 



22 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

proportionate to the number of electrons contained in 
the atoms," So in hydrogen, the lightest atom, we 
find but one electron and in uranium, the heaviest 
known atom, there are ninety-two. To-day then, sci- 
ence does not have to stop with the atom, but can take 
that more ultimate particle, the electron, as a work- 
ing basis. 

This brings us safely to the place of assumption that 
electricity is a common, pervading factor peculiar to 
the finest particles in all matter, and the electron as a 
unit of energy presents itself as a general medium of 
permeation running through all forms of material exis- 
tence, animate and inanimate. This is given partial 
confirmation in the fact that electrical excitation can 
very often get definite responses from animals, plants, 
and inorganic substances. "The everyday laboratory 
faith of the physicist is now not in visible material as 
formerly understood, but in the invisible thing we call 
electricity. He has repudiated the atom as a unit, ob- 
serving in it a wonderful and complex system of un- 
ending interest and great experimental possibilities, 
and has accepted the atom of electricity as the basis 
for his scientific belief. . . . The reality of matter, as 
formerly conceived, is now abandoned, and the invisi- 
ble becomes the everyday reality of the scientific 
laboratory." 7 

As we now come face to face with Nature in its ul- 
timate analysis, reality itself, we come face to face with 
what, in commercial as well as scientific language, has 
been called electricity. In this we foresee meanings 

7 Stewart, The Homiletic Review, Oct., 1914. 



ENERGY AS REALITY 23 

and possibilities more far-reaching than was ever 
dreamed. And in dealing with this dynamic some- 
thing, science is not willing any longer to talk in terms 
of what has been known as the electricity concept but 
endeavors to broaden and deepen its hold on truth and 
proceeds in this field of inquiry in the name of the 
energy concept. 

THE ENERGY CONCEPT AND COSMIC EVOLUTION 

A' study of cosmic evolution confirms the belief that 
there is and has been an all-prevailing something more 
fundamental than electricity, which something is 
energy, and which is manifesting itself to-day as elec- 
tricity. When we find, the dynamic conception of real- 
ity prevailing in much of the best philosophy of all 
ages, in modern psychology, and even in to-day's phil- 
osophy of life, it is not strange that in its progress 
toward ultimate truth modern science should be con- 
firming this interpretation by its strong and positive 
representation of the concept of energy. It seems nec- 
essary then for us to "reverse our thought in the search 
for causes and take steps toward an energy conception 
of the origin of life and energy conception of the na- 
ture of heredity." 8 

As intimated in the foregoing, the history of the 
earth's evolution is fundamentally the history of the 
changes in forms of energy. Four of these have pri- 
marily manifested themselves in this process of cosmic 
development — heat, light, chemical affinity, and elec- 
tricity. According to MacFarlane, 9 in the very primi- 

8 Osborn, The Origin and Evolution of Life, p. 10. 

9 MacFarlane, The Causes and Course of Organic Evolution. 



24 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

tive state of the earth when everything was in a nebu- 
lous 10 state, energy manifested itself as heat. The in- 
tensity of the heat must have been extreme "in this 
gaseous state of the earth and according to Arldt a 
temperature of at least 15000c may have existed." 11 
Associated with the intense heat was a corresponding 
rapidity in the motion of the constituents of this fiery 
mass; and in the development from this gaseous state 
the degree of motion of these particles increased, pro- 
portionate to the condensation of heat which took 
place. Here then in the condensation of heat energy 
we meet with motion and its cause as first experienced 
in the cosmic order. 

In the gradual change from the gaseous to the liquid 
state, instead of energy primarily manifesting itself as 
heat, it began to assert itself as light. Then, as the 
energy continued its condensation, with an increased 
activity and higher degree of organization of the atoms 
we find that energy expressed itself as "chemical af- 
finity." Thus as the earth progressed in its cooling 
process, associated with which was a definite progress 
in the organization of the centers of energy, bodies 
began to come into definite forms, of existence, reach- 
ing the highest and best condition in the solid state 
when energy expressed itself primarily as electricity. 
Thus when we study the transformation of energy 



10 In suggesting this program we are fully aware that science 
in America, especially geology and biology, is giving precedence 
to the Planetesimal Hypothesis as over against the Nebular 
Hypothesis. But even so, this does not at all controvert our 
theory as to the part energy has played in the process of cosmic 
evolution. 

11 MacFarlane, The Causes and Course, of Organic Evolution, 
p. 21, passim. 



ENERGY AS REALITY 25 

through the gaseous, liquid, and solid states, from 
original heat and light to electricity, we are not sur- 
prised to see electricity quickly and easily taking the 
forms of heat and light, harmonizing somewhat with 
Fanvell's view that electricity is a "highly condensed 
or latent heat." As Osborn would say, it is but the 
old forms of energy taking new directions. 

According to our hypothesis then, in the ultimate 
analysis of all things we meet energy. In it wonder- 
ful possibilities and potentialities are to be found. It 
is the Alpha and Omega of all forms of existence, the 
different bodies being but different expressions of the 
same thing. Haeckel confirms this in saying that 
"mechanical and chemical energy, sound and heat, light 
and electricity are mutually convertible; they seem to 
be but different modes of one and the same funda- 
mental force or energy. 12 That energy is a common 
principle underlying all existence, organic and inor- 
ganic, is also supported by Osborn: "No form of 
energy has thus far been discovered in living sub- 
stances which is peculiar to them and not derived from 
the inorganic world." 13 "Thus the evolution of life 
may be written in terms of invisible energy as it has 
long since been written in terms of visible forms." 14 



HE ENERGY CONCEPT AND THE UNITY OF NATURE 

In the unity of Nature we have a situation which 
seemingly is best explained by the presence of some 

12 Haeckel, Riddle of the Universe, p. 254. (Translated by 
McCabe.) 

13 Osborn, The Origin and Evolution of Life, p. 12. 
14: Ibid., p. 17. 



26 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

universal, dynamic essence such as energy; and the 
more progress we make in our understanding of Na- 
ture the more we are impressed with the harmonious 
interactions and relationships existing between Na- 
ture's constituents. Marvin feels that if we could see 
Nature through perfect eyes all seeming discords 
would disappear. He says "the doctrine of evolution 
has made the forms of animal and plant life, the insti- 
tutions, customs, and languages and arts of different 
peoples all seem but different chapters in one connected 
story of earthly life. In short, increased knowledge 
reveals increased interconnection and complete knowl- 
edge would reveal complete interconnection." 15 Since 
organic and inorganic bodies are composed of the same 
ingredients, all coming from the same elements, it is 
very natural to look upon the world as one great uni- 
tary whole. 

Tagore, the poet-philosopher of India, protests 
against the idea that certain parts of Nature are set 
off from the rest. He advocates a real unity of Nature 
in saying that "in the west the prevalent feeling is that 
Nature belongs exclusively to inanimate things and 
to beasts, that there is a sudden, unaccountable break 
where human nature begins. According to it, every- 
thing that is law in the scale of beings is merely Na- 
ture, and whatever has the stamp of perfection on it, 
intellectual or moral, is human nature. It is like di- 
viding the bud and the blossom into two separate 
categories and putting their grace to the credit of two 
different and antithetical principles." 16 

15 Marvin, A First Book in Metaphysics, p. 92. 

16 Tagore, Sadhana — The Realization of Life, pp. 6-7. 



ENERGY AS REALITY 27 

Not only no man liveth unto himself, but no thing 
liveth unto itself. There is a common chord running 
through all life. The interests of all forms of exist- 
ing life are mutual. The tender, sympathetic strain 
common to all life is necessarily based upon a reciproc- 
ity in relationships. 

Even between the lower animals and man a tender 
understanding is often experienced, and in many cases 
the responses obtained from them are almost incredi- 
ble. The pipe organ not only thrills us as human be- 
ings but gets a sympathetic response from inanimate 
objects as well. We love to commune with Nature 
but the reality of this experience would vanish if we 
should try to make it a one-sided affair on our part. 
Being human we best understand man's feelings in re- 
lation to other existing things but that does not say 
that he contributes more than his proportionate share 
of appreciation to the unity and harmony of Nature. 
In this fact of mutual relationships there must be some 
element of reality upon which these interactions can 
ride back and forth. We find this principle of reality 
in energy into which man and beast and clod can be 
resolved. 

Behind this attitude modern thought seems to be 
arraying itself. De Tunzelmann says "the observed 
correlation of mental and material phenomena defin- 
itely demonstrates the power of the human mind and 
the minds of other living beings, to influence and be 
influenced by, changes in the distribution of energy in 
their material environment." 17 

17 de Tunzelmann, The Electrical Theory and Problem of the 
Universe, p. 471. 



28 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

Some would go so far as to say "physical and psych- 
ical processes depend so on one another that it is pos- 
sible to find in energy not only a possible unifying of 
Nature but an occasion for an efficient and moving 
cause." Energy seems to be established as the funda- 
mental means of interaction and relationship between 
mind and matter, mind and mind, and matter and mat- 
ter. Perry would get to the heart of the whole ques- 
tion and says: "Instead of conceiving a matter that 
manifests itself in forms and motions, why not stop 
at force and invest it with finality and universality ?" 18 

Perhaps de Tunzelmann comes out strongest in 
championing the cause of energy as the ultimate basic 
element in all matter. He says we cannot conceive of 
a substance from which the uniform distribution of 
energy has been abstracted. Its very life would be 
taken away if the energy element were eliminated. He 
seems to sum up his attitude in saying, "All the phe- 
nomena of the material universe may therefore be con- 
sidered as arising solely from changes in energy dis- 
tribution. That is to say, energy is the sole ultimate 
phenomenal basis of matter." 19 

It is very evident then that in recent years a great 
change has taken place in the field of science due to the 
development of the electronic theory of matter. In 
fact, we have come to that place where it can be said 
that "the old concept of stuff has been completely dis- 
placed by the new concept of radiant energy." 20 Thus 
it seems that the old scientist-philosophers, some of 

18 Perry, Present Philosophical Tendencies, p. 70. 

19 de Tunzelmann, The Electrical Theory and Problem of the 
Universe, p. 470. 

20 Carr, Preface to Bergson's Mind-Energy, p. vi. 



ENERGY AS REALITY 29 

whose systems we shall review in the next chapter, in 
teaching the presence in matter of a dynamic element, 
were feeling after the real truth in the situation. For 
modern science not only confirms this attitude but, as 
has been suggested, goes still further, and by satisfac- 
tory experiments has come to the conclusion that 
"there is no difference between matter and energy" 21 
and that the world in its ultimate essence, reality itself '; 
is energy. 

21 Wendt, Lectures. 



Chapter II 

THE DYNAMIC TREND IN THE HISTORY OF 
THOUGHT 

As suggested in our first chapter the dynamic con- 
ception of the world is not at all new, and the attitude 
of modern science toward the energy concept has a 
strong background of support in the energetic concep- 
tion of reality so evident in the history of thought. 
We shall now undertake as our immediate task to pass 
in review those thinkers, ancient and modern, who 
have dwelt upon the dynamic aspect of reality. 

$Y2I2 

The men of the early Ionian school were the first 
to try to get into the heart of Nature and find out 
what is the abiding element in all changing things — 
that common substance from which all things come 
and into which they pass. 1 To understand the teach- 
ing of these early Greek thinkers it is necessary to 
understand the meaning of cpvcnz as used by them, for 
this seems to constitute the source and backbone of | 
their philosophy. 

In the philosophy of these writers we find cpvau 
(Physis) to be a fiery, living, moving, ultimate essence 
permeating all things. From it, which knows no be- 

1 Bakewell's Source Book in Philosophy, p. I. 

30 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 31 

ginning or end, through the media of water, air, and 
fire, by means of its own self-activity, have come all 
things, souls, gods, the world itself. $vGzg then, the 
substratum and essence of all bodies, 2 is a vitalistic, 
self -producing element from whose eternal mobility 
and life all existing forms receive impulses to activity, 
as it constantly plays the role of an urging, guiding, 
and determining factor. To Anaximander have been 
ascribed these words: "dddvarov ydp uai dvGoXedpov 
7tepiex eiv G07tavra xai 7idvra Hvfieprav ." 3 This ulti- 
mate essence then is not only living and free but also 
divine. 



HYLOZOISM 

The first philosophy which will be taken up is that 
of the hylozoists as represented by Thales, Anaxi- 
mander, Anaximenes, and Heracleitus, in which is 
prominent the idea that the whole world is a living 
being and that all matter is moving; living matter and 
moving matter being identical. All material elements 
of Nature are related in a common life. In this system 
we find evinced the belief that the universe is animated 
by an inner, fiery, vital principle which operates as a 
qualitatively psychic factor. This conception of an 
inner, moving principle of unity appears early among 
Greek thinkers, and naturally the question arose, what 
matter is most moving, most alive ? What is this ulti- 
mate reality which affords a basis for all moving and 



2 Veazie, Studies in the History of Ideas, Ch. II, passim. 

3 "Immortal and indestructible, surrounds all and directs all." 
(Fairbanks, The First Philosophers of Greece, pp. 8-9.) 



32 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

changing, and which continues to exist after the 
changes occur? 

In answer to this question Thales replied that it was 
water, seeing that moisture was very essential in animal 
and vegetable life; also perceiving it to be very subtle 
and versatile, appearing in the forms of a solid, liquid, 
and vapor. He felt that the plasticity of matter fur- 
nished the possibility for everything to change, through 
water as the medium; all things have their origin in 
water and go back into water again. The active vi- 
tality of matter so impressed Thales that he taught the 
existence of a world soul, and that a divine mind was 
constantly at work. He would say according to Aris- 
totle: "All things are full of gods. The magnet is 
alive; for it has the power of moving iron." 4 Thales' 
water, "the soul substance, possesses a superhuman 
mana, a daemonic energy distinct from the natural 
properties of the water." 5 

Plato quotes Thales as saying: "Is there any one 
who acknowledges this and yet holds that all things are 
not full of gods?" "Its motion and its power of 
generating things other than itself are due to its life 
(ipvxrf), an inward, spontaneous principle of activ- 
ity." 6 Thus in the hylozoism of Thales we have a 
dynamic conception of Nature which is inseparable 
from the modern energy concept. 

Anaximander also was keenly conscious of the pres- 
ence of an unlimited, active, vital force in matter, but 

4 Quoted from Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy, p. 48. 

5 Quoted from Cornford's From Religion to Philosophy, p. 135. 
« Ibid., p. 128. 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 33 

he did not give it the name of an element such as water. 
He called his the Unlimited or Infinite which is not 
only unlimited and infinite but is "without beginning, 
indestructible and immortal. ,, This dynamic, inner life 
surging through matter is endowed by Anaximander 
with the possibility of "encompassing and guiding all 
things." We find Theophrastus saying that "Anaxi- 
mander . . . said that the material cause and first ele- 
ment of things was the Infinite, he being the first to 
introduce this name for the material cause. He says 
it is neither water nor any other of the so-called ele- 
ments, but a substance different from them which is 
infinite, from which arise all the heavens and all the 
worlds within them. . . . He says that this is eternal 
and ageless and that it encompasses all the worlds . . . 
and besides this there was an eternal motion, in the 
course of which was brought about the origin of the 
worlds." 7 

Anaximenes, continuing the same dynamic trend of 
thought, said that air, with an inner vitality and force 
peculiar to itself, was the underlying and pervading 
principle in everything. Air is continually in motion 
and has the same relation to the world as man's soul 
has to his body. According to Theophrastus, Anaxi- 
menes says : "Just as our soul, being air, holds us to- 
gether, so do breath and air encompass the whole 
world." 

7 Quoted from Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy, pp. 54-55. 



34 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

HERACLEITUS 

In Heracleitus also we meet with a remarkable antic- 
ipation of the modern energetic attitude toward real- 
ity. In his philosophy he reaches forward to a funda- 
mental principle in modern science, teaching that every- 
thing moves; everything is in a state of flux. Noth- 
ing abides; all things in Nature are changing into one 
another — are in a constant process of becoming. He 
called his primary cosmic substance, fire. It is not 
what we mean by ordinary fire but a something which 
changes into all things and into which all things can 
be transformed. It so permeates the last iota of all 
substance that in all matter there is the "ever-living 
fire." These changing processes, which are expres- 
sions of a restless vitality, are fateful, rational 
and just. Thus the world is explained in terms 
of a cosmic substance, a transforming force, fire, which 
continually burns but never burns out; man himself 
being a spark of fire struck off from, and at death be- 
comes lost in the great cosmic Fire. 

In this whole system there is a marked element of 
harmony characterizing all Nature, back of which is a 
Universal Order, Divine Law, whose force is intelli- 
gent and efficient, governing all things. Heracleitus 
calls this all-prevailing principle intelligent Will, 8 Law, 9 

8 Fragment 19 — There is one wisdom, to understand the intelli- 
gent will by which all things are governed through all. 

9 Fragment 91 — The law of understanding is common to all. 
Those who speak with intelligence must hold fast to that which 
is common to all, even more strongly than a city holds fast to 
its law. For all human laws are dependent upon one divine law, 
for this rules as far as it wills, and suffices for all, and over- 
bounds. 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 35 

Justice, 10 Destiny or Fate, 11 Wisdom, 12 God. 13 It is 
both material and spiritual. In its fiery make-up it is 
identical with evident, tangible activities; as Law it be- 
comes pure Form which abides amid all changing re- 
lationships. Do we not have here an interpretation of 
the world in its ultimate essence which is charged 
through and through with an unmistakable vitalism? 
Confirmation and emphasis are given this belief by the 
fact that to the original substance there is ascribed a 
spirit of appetency, which determined by Universal 
order — a rational Law — supplies the urge necessary 
to the conflicting activities by which Nature has come 
from a general substratum to the experience of specific 
individual identities. Heracleitus even carries this doc- 
trine of activism over into his ethics and teaches that 
the "summum bonum" is reached chiefly through the 
medium of intellectual striving. 14 " 

DEMOCRITUS 

We introduce at this time the philosophy of Democ- 
ritus, 15 the first materialistic system. An analysis of 
this philosophy is made, not because it belongs to the 

10 Fragment 29 — The sun will not overstep his bounds, for if 
he does, the Erinyes, helpers of justice, will find him out. 

11 Fragment 63 — For it is wholly destined . . . 

12 Fragment 65 — There is only one supreme wisdom. It wills 
and wills not to be called by the name of Zeus. 

13 Fragment 36 — God is day and night, winter and summer, 
war and peace, plenty and want. But he is changed, just as 
when incense is mingled with incense, but named according to 
the pleasure of each. 

14 Patrick's Heracleitus, p. 56 ff . 

15 Democritus (460-370 B.C.). A native of Abdera, Thrace. 
He studied in the famous Atomistic school of Leucippus which 
was at that place. 



86 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

history of energy systems but because it is the best 
example of a purely materialistic system and must be 
carefully examined to show the limitations of a non 
energetic system of thought; and also to show that 
this elaborate program of materialism, being without 
a vitalistic principle, offers a substitute for this seem- 
ing need. 

Here, then, we find no vitalism, no idealism ; every- 
thing is considered from a mechanistic standpoint. 
Democritus, taking up the work begun in Atomism by 
his master Leucippus, was the best representative of 
the Atomistic school. Naturally with him all phe- 
nomena are explained in terms of atoms and the im- 
pact of atoms. The atoms to which he reduces all 
substance are invisible, uncreated, solid, indivisible lit- 
tle bodies moving in empty space. Though alike quali- 
tatively they differ in form and size. The various 
groupings or constellations of these atoms furnish a 
basis for all changing relationships. There is no mov- 
ing force outside of them. Motion is a quality pe- 
culiarly their own; and as they move in space they 
mechanically strike each other. The impact causes the 
coming together of other atoms, and "thus worlds are 
formed as well as smaller objects from the original 
vortex." The fire atoms, characterized by mental ac- 
tivity, are the finest, smoothest, and most active. They 
are to be found not only in man but in plants and 
animals as well, constituting the soul life of that body 
of which they are a part. Man's superior mentality is 
due to a fuller abundance of these atoms. At death the 
fire atoms take their flight and the soul life ceases to be. 

Democritus does not give to his atoms a kind of 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 87 

spontaneity as does Lucretius, nor feeling and will as 
does the materialist Haeckel. He does not fail, how- 
ever, to make provision for the energy part of the 
-world. He endows his atoms with original motion 
which enables them to experience independent self- 
activity. Inherent in the nature of the atoms there is 
a tendency to combine. And also in making the fire 
atoms to be the principle of activity in all organisms, 16 
the real "soul stuff," endowing their motion with a 
psychical activity which permeates the entire organism, 
producing the "phenomena of heat and life," he pre- 
sents a definite substitute for the dynamic conception 
of reality. 



In Aristotle's philosophy of the organic world we 
have an interpretation of reality which rises above the 
materialism of Democritus and is more practical than 
the idealism of Plato. He forsakes the conceptual bent 
acquired in his early training and builds a world of 
perceptual existence. He would say there are no ideas 
apart from individual things. "True reality is the es- 
sense which unfolds in phenomena." Matter and 
Form are the two facts constituting reality. There is 
a constant development in progress in the world which 
represents the endeavor of matter to find expression in 
Form. By matter he does not mean a hard, dead mass 
but an undercurrent of Being endowed with potential- 
ity and possibility. By Form he means the ideas or 

16 Windelband, History of Ancient Philosophy, p. 165. (Trans- 
lation by Cushman.) 



38 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

qualities which constitute the object. We can get 
Aristotle's conception of reality by using the illustra- 
tion of a building in process of construction which 
would be something like this : "Matter is the stone in 
the quarry and wood in the tree. Here is potential 
being. Form is the idea of the future building as it is 
in the mind. Reality then is the building as it will be 
when finished." So of all reality. 

Aristotle, however, was not so much interested in 
reality itself as he was in its causes. Thus we find 
him teaching that beneath the struggle of everything 
toward a higher and better realization of itself there is 
a dynamic quality which initiates and lends impetus to 
the movement, whether we call it idea, Form, or 
energy. Aristotle emphasizes the fact that there is no 
particle of substance from which this quality is absent. 
As matter strives to become Form — the potentiality to 
develop into actuality — it is moving toward its highest 
end in time, man; reaching out for the highest realiza- 
tion possible, perfection, which is God. This inner 
principle, the very soul of all things, is constantly 
moving every part of Nature toward a definite end, 
revealing a principle of purpose, which indicates a 
knowing quality. This force then inherent in all Na- 
ture is a rational principle of activity and has a real 
relationship to the energy theory of the present time. 

EPICURUS AND LUCRETIUS 

In Epicurus' conception of reality there is a program 
patterned after that of Democritus. There is nothing 
in the universe except innumerable, indestructible little 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 39 

atoms and empty space. In the beginning all atoms 
were falling in a straight line. Falling in empty space, 
they fell with the same velocity. Each atom has in it- 
self a characteristic freedom, a psychical quality which 
was responsible for their swerving from their original 
path. Striking one another a nucleus was formed, 
finally objects, and the earth itself. Thus ultimate 
reality is found in this little body, ruling out an out- 
side force, final causes, God. There is no system, no 
law, no purposive organization. 

Lucretius, who belonged to this same school, in his 
didactic poem, De Rerum Natura, reemphasizes the 
philosophy of Epicurus, further saying that only atoms 
and void exist. All things are the combinations of 
these two or an "event of these." 1T But he gives his 
atoms a certain spontaneity and free will, saying that 
the w T orld, the same as everything else, is the spontan- 
eous result of the combination of these little atoms 
which are the constituents of life. In this idea of 
spontaneity Lucretius makes a marked addition to the 
psychical activity suggested by Democritus and Epi- 
curus, and hence gives to his atoms a genuine dynamic 
quality. 

THE STOICS 

In a study of the Stoics we find a system of material- 
ism which says everything is matter, from God to the 
most insignificant thing. Matter is the mover as well 
as the thing moved. The whole universe is matter in 

17 Lange, History of Materialism, Vol. I, p. 135. 



40 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

constant motion. Nature not only operates according 
to law but is a supreme law in itself. It, however, is 
permeated by a force, a fire, a reason, which is a for- 
mative, governing, and vital principle. This principle 
with a power inherent in itself operates constantly in 
the process of development, guiding things to a perfect 
end. This force is the very central fact in the uni- 
verse's existence. It is to the universe what the soul 
of man is to man, man's soul being but a part of the 
great Soul, the great pervading force. Consequently 
having here a vital force which is also rational, we 
have a qualitatively psychic and dynamic interpreta- 
tion of reality. 

Augustine, representing the church fathers, and one 
of the first subjectivists, in trying to locate certainty 
and reality said truth and reason are within one's self. 
These inner principles constitute the real life. "These 
are really God, for He is truth and reason." The 
more we learn the meaning of these inner experiences 
the closer we get to reality. With him then ultimate 
reality is God operating in one's self and life. 

LEIBNITZ 

We now come to that place in the history of the 
search for reality where the dynamic and vitalistic 
conceptions of reality which are found in Heracleitus, 
Aristotle, the Stoics, and even in Lucretius, come to an 
end for the time in the mathematico-mechanical con- 
ception of the seventeenth century. Scientific interest 
centers primarily in matter, space, extension and mo- 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 41 

tion. There is one outstanding exception, however, to 
the suggestion that in this period all energetic theories 
are banished, and this exception is Leibnitz. His in- 
terpretation of reality will now be treated, remember- 
ing that he wrote later than Descartes or Spinoza, the 
chief exponents of the mechanical conception prevail- 
ing in this period. 

Leibnitz attempted to do away with the old idea of 
the atom as a divisible little body, also to eliminate the 
single substance theory of Spinoza, and in this en- 
deavor he built up in his monadology a theory which 
is fired through and through with a dynamic concep- 
tion of reality. In his system the universe is made up 
of innumerable, indivisible little units called monads 
which are bits of force constituting the ultimate es- 
sence of all things, reality itself. "These primal es- 
sences or forces, which he calls monads, constitute the 
whole of reality; they are the fundamental elements 
of the entire material and spiritual world . . . they 
are contrasted with mere atoms in that they are not 
dead, inert particles, but instinct with vitality and 
movement." 18 

In the world there are degrees of consciousness, 
ranging from low to complete states, corresponding to 
the make-up of the monads constituting the object. 
This fact of degree roots itself in the two kinds of 
quality which enter into matter so-called — passive and 
active. Passive matter obstructs clear perception while 
active matter represents pure perception. 

In minerals the monads have a large measure of pas- 
sive matter; consequently there is confused perception, 

18 Alexander, A Short History of Philosophy, p. 320. 



42 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

not fully conscious. In organic life a large number of 
the monads possess a greater proportion of active mat- 
ter constituting a nucleus or governing center around 
which the other monads cluster. Naturally then in 
organic life there is a higher degree of perception, man 
standing at the head of the group. It is only in God 
that we find monads representing absolutely clear per- 
ception. Thus individually and in groups, in all the 
activities of the universe, we find these little centers 
of force, with their own peculiar spirit of appetency, 
climbing toward higher realizations of being. The 
cause of the natural changes of the monads Leibnitz 
would ascribe to an internal principle, "since an ex- 
ternal cause can have no influence upon their inner 
being." 19 Thus his philosophy becomes a fertile oasis 
of dynamism having its setting in a desert of dead 
mechanism. 

As we have already suggested, in this period the 
current of philosophical thought runs from vitalism to 
mechanism. Descartes' philosophy well represents the 
change of attitude toward reality. In his system a dis- 
tinction is drawn between conscious and spatial reality. 
Matter is diametrically opposed to spirit. There are 
really three realities, "self, God, and matter." God is 
the Absolute Reality and thus is the moving cause. 
The two secondary substances are dependent on the 
Absolute Reality, God. The chief qualities of matter 
are extension and motion, but matter is essentially 
extension, i. e., space. There is no place in this system 
for indivisible facts like atoms. The attributes or 

19 Latta, Leibnitz — The Monadology, p. 223. 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 43 

qualities of objects do not rest in objects themselves 
but are traceable to the creations of our mental activi- 
ties. 

He applies a mechanical conception to everything 
outside of God and self, denying mental states even to 
animals. Huxley was pleased because Descartes had 
been able to see that "the remotest parts of the universe 
are governed by mechanical laws including our own 
bodily frame, and attempted for the first time to ac- 
count for all natural phenomena as only a simple de- 
velopment of the laws of mechanics with the effect of 
arriving ... at that purely mechanical view of vital 
phenomena toward which modern physiology is striv- 
ing." 20 

Spinoza, continuing the mechanical conception of 
reality characteristic of this period, makes no great, 
fundamental change in the philosophy of Descartes. 
Known as the God-intoxicated man, he taught the ex- 
istence of but one substance, God. God and the world 
are identical. This infinite Substance has two attri- 
butes — mind and matter. There are things other than 
God which exist and yet they exist in Him; they are a 
part of God. God is everything; everything is God, 
might be considered a summary of his philosophy. 

MECHANISM VERSUS DYNAMISM 

The mechanism prevailing in this period to which 
we have referred would say "the substance itself does 
not change. All that changes is the relation between 

20 Cooley, The Principles of Science, p. 135. 



44 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

the substances. These changes in relation give rise in 
us, as onlookers, to the illusion that the substance it- 
self is changing its qualities," 21 thus making the world 
of mechanics tell the complete story of reality. This 
as over against the dynamic conception which would 
say "it is of the very nature of the substance sponta- 
neously to produce new qualities and states." Thus 
according to mechanism the idea of an inner force 
directing to an end, or even present at all, is supplanted 
by the belief that all harmony, all changes are due to 
the mechanical interactions of parts and their relation 
to outside influences. As the principles of "adjust- 
ment, interaction, continuity, uniformity, and causa- 
tion" play their part we have the secret of all activities. 
And as a result of the work of Descartes, Newton, 
Spinoza, etc., the dynamic theory of reality had to wait 
for expression until the nineteenth and twentieth cen- 
turies, at which time we are ushered into the biological, 
psychological, and dynamic era in which energy be- 
comes the more basal concept. 

In connection with the mechanical theories it is in 
order here to reach forward and mention the philos- 
ophy of Herbert Spencer, although his writings do not 
appear until after the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. Spencer endeavored to show that all activities 
of the universe have as a basis of operation a funda- 
mental principle, a persistent force. 22 Then in at- 

21 Marvin, A First Book in Metaphysics, pp. 184-185. 

22 "As shown before, we cannot go on merging derivative 
truths in those under-truths from which they are derived, with- 
out reaching at least a widest truth which can be merged in no 
other, 01 derived from no other. And the relation in which it 
stands to the truths of science in general shows that this 
transcending demonstration is the Persistence of Force. . . . But 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 45 

tempting to account for the way in which this prin- 
ciple reveals itself, he gives an interpretation of reality 
which is mechanical and unsatisfactory. He would 
say "the law of the continuous redistribution of matter 
and energy" is fundamental in all changes and rela- 
tionships. As constant activity characterizes every- 
thing, in this constant movement there is an upward 
and downward process going on continually. The end 
of the upward movement is reached when like units are 
brought together in such way as to obtain a balance of 
stability. It is then when this point is reached that 
the downward movement begins in the process of dis- 
integration. Thus the universe is one big piece of 
machinery whose parts are moving one way for a time 
and then another. All activities are thus reduced to a 
system of mechanism. 

That such a dead mechanical view, which had been 
dominating in this field of thought for years and held 
by Spencer in the latter part of the nineteenth century, 
was unable to satisfy the mind (pragmatically insuffi- 
cient) is shown by the new dynamic currents of 
thought entering from many quarters, all suggestive 
of the energy concept, several of which we shall take 
up at this time. 



when we ask what the energy is, there is no answer save that it 
is the noumenal cause, implied by the phenomenal effect. Hence 
the force of which we assert persistence is that Absolute Force 
we are obliged to postulate as the necessary correlate of the 
force we are conscious of. By the Persistence of Force we really 
mean the persistence of some cause which transcends our knowl- 
edge and conception. In asserting it we assert an Unconditional 
Reality without beginning or end." (Spencer, First Principles, 
Sixth Edition. 175-176.) 



46 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 



"There were those who said everything could be ex- 
plained by natural science as a great world machine," 
but this attitude seemed cold and harsh to Kant, he 
feeling keenly conscious that there was something 
lacking in the philosophy prevailing at that time. It 
seemed to him to be out of touch with real facts, with 
real life. He aimed at supplying this seeming need. 

In seeking the real facts of life Kant goes past the 
secondary world of phenomena and discovers a pri- 
mary world of absolute values. Here we meet with 
human nature in which there is a marvel of beauty 
and dignity. In this realm of higher values we come 
in touch with real life, the innermost essence of man, 
the will. This ultimate fact, will, is untrammeled, 
free, supreme. 

All law proceeds from the will for we can do just 
what we will to do. There is only one good thing in 
the world, a good will, and this striving will, acting as 
a unifying power, a synthetic activity, is the Alpha and 
Omega of all things. Thus Kant's system, the central, 
vital principle of which is a striving, energetic will, 
must be given a place in the list of dynamic philoso- 
phies, and a definite relationship to the energy con- 
cept, 

Schopenhauer's philosophy of the will 

Schopenhauer makes will to be the moving principle, 
the vitalizing force, not only in man but in all Nature 
as well. This striving principle is common to all Na- 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 4T 

ture, nothing being too small or remote to escape its 
influence. It is the eternal and indestructible ultimate 
essence, the final reality in all things. Will not only 
reveals itself in external things but is matter itself. 
Our bodily movements, and the organs which enter 
into our experiences are but manifestations of a surg- 
ing, striving will. "The brain is the will to know, the 
foot the will to go, the stomach the will to digest." 23 

Will is the force urging the grass to grow, the 
flowers to bloom, the tree to bear fruit, in short, all 
Nature to observe its uniform methods of behavior. 
It is the primary characteristic of all life, the lowest 
type being the willing to preserve life, the simple will- 
ing to live. From this lowest type there is a gradual 
rise in the series until the highest type is reached which 
is conscious, and is represented by man. The beauty 
and harmony of all Nature is due to the fact that there 
is but one will and this same will operates in all phe- 
nomena including man, its great objective always 
being the highest and best possible. 

Striving for the best does not mean any particular 
end, for Schopenhauer rules out purposes. Thus all 
activities of the universe constitute a mass of constant, 
endless, irrational striving, the great driving motor 
being the will. 

In this connection Wundt's philosophy of will units 
and Hegel's philosophy of spirit could be offered as 
dynamic theories as over against the mechanical 
theories advocated by Descartes and Spinoza. We 

23 Quoted from A Short History of Philosophy, Alexander, 
p. 501. 



48 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

simply mention them here and later, under another 
heading, we shall offer a brief analysis of each. 



HAECKEL 

In each of the immediately foregoing systems of 
thought, indicative of modern belief, we find an active, 
striving, vitalizing force at work. So, continuing our 
line of thought which is characteristic of modern scien- 
tific presentation, we shall now turn aside for the time 
being and consider the philosophy of the materialist 
Haeckel, the monism-intoxicated scientist. It may 
seem out of order to introduce his system in connec- 
tion with a study of the energy concept, but we shall 
give a summary of his philosophy and add quotations 
from his work, The Riddle of the Universe, with 
the purpose of showing that he actually gives to his 
atoms a quality of energetic striving. 

He purports to represent a system of monism which 
rises above spiritualism and sheer materialism, as they 
ignore matter and teach the doctrine of dead atoms, 
respectively. 24 He would merge both into one and call 
it monism. There is but one substance into which 
everything roots itself. In this substance its two attri- 
butes, matter and mind, are linked together as one. 

Very often Haeckel' s representations are not alto- 
gether clear. In his explanation of some activities he 
points to the soul principle, and at other times pictures 
the psychical activities as representing the ordinary 

24 Haeckel, Riddle of the Universe, p. 20. (Translation by 
McCabe.) 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 49 

functions of the brain, as rooting themselves in the 
central nervous system. Psychology is but a sub-head 
under physiology in his general presentation. 

Though a heralded materialist he definitely gives to 
his atoms a quality of feeling, of will, of striving, 
which challenges the correctness of the classification 
which some are inclined to give his philosophy. His 
atoms seem to have an affinity for each other, a satis- 
faction in harmonious relationships and resent an in- 
terruption of these experiences. This unconscious, 
pleasurable affinity noticed in the lower strata of life 
is what we meet in the sexes of organic life, simply 
more highly developed in the latter, for this funda- 
mental unity of affinity is found in all Nature. 25 

This program which places all vital phenomena 
under mechanical processes of life, even making psychic 
activities dependent on a definite material substratum, 
like all other phenomena, later adds that "covering the 
whole field of organic and inorganic nature the two 
fundamental forms of substance, ponderable matter 
and ether, are not dead and only moved by extrinsic 
force, but they are endowed with sensation and will; 
they experience an inclination for condensation, a dis- 
like for strain; they strive after the one and struggle 
against the other." 26 

In speaking of the atom Haeckel says it "is not with- 
out a rudimentary form of sensation and will, or as it 
is better expressed, of feeling and inclination — that is 
a universal 'soul' of the simplest character." 27 He 

25 Ibid., p. 224. 

26 Ibid., p. 220. (Italics are mine.) 

27 Ibid., p. 225. 



50 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 






would carry this same principle of activity into the 
molecule. 

In speaking of ether, which is boundless and im- 
measurable, he says : "It is in eternal motion, and this 
specific movement of ether in reciprocal action with 
mass movement is the ultimate cause of all phenom- 
ena." 28 The question naturally arises as to what causes 
the ether to move or the mass to reciprocate. He 
would say "the conversion of one form of energy into 
another, as indicated in the law of the persistence of 
force, illustrates the constant reciprocity of the two 
chief types of substance, ether and mass." 29 But this 
does not answer the question as to the fundamental 
cause of change. 

Haeckel would make the law of reciprocity dominate 
the elaborate performances of the nervous system it- 
self. But even when saying that "movement is as 
innate and original a property of substance as is sensa- 
tion," he is not fully clear as to cause. It is when 
speaking of the evolutionary division of mass and 
ether that he ascribes the real cause of change and 
which cause embodies a vitalistic conception — "this di- 
vision so effected by a progressive condensation of 
matter as the formation of countless infinitesimal cen- 
ters of condensation in which the inherent primitive 
properties of substance — feeling and inclination — are 
the active causes." 30 Thus there is a "unity of all 
natural forces" which is the "monism of energy/' 31 

28 Haeckel, Riddle of the Universe, p. 228. 

29 Ibid., p. 230. 

30 Ibid., p. 243. (Italics are mine.) 
31 Ibid., p. 254. (Italics are mine.) 



HISTORY OF THOUGHT 51 



OSTWALD 

Among those scientists of modern times who have 
presented definite energy theories, a prominent place 
must be given the philosophy of Ostwald. 32 Here we 
meet a system in which force or energy is established 
as the primary concept ; the concept matter being classi- 
fied as a secondary phenomena, having its origin in the 
association and mingling of certain energies. Accord- 
ing to Siebert, 33 Ostwald means by energy everything 
that grows out of work and everything that can be 
transformed into work. The explanation of all occur- 
rences in the whole of Nature rests in an understanding 
of the activities and shif tings of energies in space and 
time. 

There is a continual process going on in Nature of 
distributing and gathering energy. If a living being is 
to continue life it must, by an initiative and energy all 
its own, gather unto itself quantities of energy suffi- 
cient not only for preserving life but in addition 
thereto, for it is thus that it makes possible its continu- 
ance in the preservation of the species. When the 
barriers of resistance against which the organism has 
to fight, as it gathers energy, become stronger than 
the latter, then the living form dies. As the body takes 
in energy the nervous apparatuses constitute the me- 
dium for the transmutation of the energy into activi- 
ties. 



32 Wm. Ostwald (1853-), Professor of Physical Chemistry at 
Leipsic. 

33 Geschichte der neuren deutschen Philosophic seit Hegel, 
Siebert, pp. 302-305. 



52 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

It is thus seen in the history of thought that it would 
be impossible successfully to relegate to the background 
the strong tendency to dynamism. It has been in this 
type of philosophy that the scientific as well as the 
everyday type of mind has found most genuine satis- 
faction. Confirmation of this attitude is seen in the 
seeming fact that those systems have been lasting as 
well as satisfying which have been built around an 
energetic conception. It is not strange then that 
modern thought is speaking out definitely in support of 
an energetic interpretation of reality. 



Chapter III 

THE DYNAMIC TREND IN MODERN 
PSYCHOLOGY 

There is so much in modern psychology which has 
a strong bearing on the energy concept that no one 
writing in this field would fail to mention the definite 
current of thought in contemporary psychology, set- 
ting in the direction of an emphasis upon the will and 
amative element in our mental life. These together 
with the voluntaristic tendency of thought, the Freudian 
wish, the emphasis placed upon feeling, self-regard, 
and fear, all indicate a relationship to an energetic con- 
ception of reality which cannot be overlooked. 

In the search for the cause responsible for the "pull" 
or "urge" which is so evident in human nature, the psy- 
chologist naturally goes into the realm of the mental 
life, for it is here that the fundamental element in all 
activity is to be found. Modern thought, however, is 
not stopping with the intellect ; this seems to have had 
its day. This fact is very clear in Bergson who in 
trying to organize the delicate machinery of the inner 
life definitely relegates intellect to a subordinate place. 
With him intellect seems to be in a foreign field when 
trying to deal with the life of the body and mind. In- 
tellect is unable to get hold of life. It seems to be at 
home in dealing with the inert; always mechanically 
applying the forms of unorganized matter. Here only 

53 



54 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

does it seem to find complete satisfaction. Intellect 
simply takes things as they are given to it and tries to 
organize them. When we come to those things which 
flow from the heart of the living we begin to talk in 
terms of behavior and give a primary place to instinct, 
impulse, will. 

We are not dealing simply with that which enables 
us to know things but with that something which is 
continually drawing to the yes-side and no-side of life, 
as situations demand decisions. Is this something due 
to a mechanical organization of our dispositions prede- 
termined at our very inception in life? Or is it due 
to organized persistent energy or endeavor characteris- 
tic of all life? Modern psychology believes the latter 
to be the case. 

The school of voluntarism, wielding an important 
influence in psychology to-day, will have but little to 
do with intellect, putting emphasis on the will instead, 
saying that in this we meet finality. As individual 
purposiveness characterizes all our actions, the factor 
guiding to this end is the will, playing continually the 
volitional role peculiar to itself. Our inward experi- 
ences then, controlled by the will and of which we are 
immediately conscious, reveal ultimate reality and con- 
stitute a willing dynamism. 1 

Wundt is an able representative of this school of 
thought which gives such a large place to the will. 
With him voluntary action is feeling in which the will 
asserts itself. "The feelings of each moment unite in 
a single total feeling; this total feeling is the resultant 

1 Perry, The Present Conflict of Ideas, pp. 205-210; 454-459. 



MODERN PSYCHOLOGY 55 

volitional tendency." 2 Volition finds its causes in mo- 
tives, but for a motive to be effective it must be asso- 
ciated with a willing self. And since volition has its 
origin in internal processes "it is at once clear that 
motives must be internal psychical causes." 

According to Wundt the connate impulse roots it- 
self in an interplay of psychical processes, as seen in 
the actions of a hungry infant. This impulse is "physio- 
logical in its ultimate basis but springs directly from 
psychological conditions which may at any time inter- 
fere to modify its original character." 3 Thus we have 
in this psychology an interpretation of reality in which 
there is an underlying, energetic principle dominating 
the whole category of life's activities. 

In James' psychology we also find much stress put 
upon the will as an ultimate factor in the execution of 
purpose. He would say that the triumph of a motive 
or the realization of a desire is due to their being held 
fast before the mind at the focus of consciousness and 
that this is accomplished by inhibiting all other ideas 
competing for domination. Thus there is much in real 
will power. 

Bergson finds no satisfaction in a mechanistic in- 
terpretation of reality nor in a theory of finalism. 4 
At every turn in his system we meet activity, back of 
which is an energetic impulse. With him mind is "a 
force working, seeking to free itself from trammels 
and also to surpass itself, to give first all it has and 



2 Wundt, Human and Animal Psychology, p. 234. 

3 Ibid., p. 401. 

4 Bergson, Creative Evolution, p. 87. (Translation by Mitchell.) 



56 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

then something more than it has." 5 When speaking 
of mind he means, above everything else, conscious- 
ness; and to this he ascribes heavy responsibilities, all 
of an active nature. The most obvious feature of 
consciousness is memory. Consciousness, however, 
not only retains the past but anticipates the future as 
well. In the performance of these two primary func- 
tions, its chief role is to decide, to choose. Bergson 
feels that "whether we consider the act which con- 
sciousness decrees or the perception which prepares the 
act, in either case consciousness appears as a force seek- 
ing to assert itself in matter in order to get possession 
of it and turn it to its profit." 6 'The evolution of life, 
from its earliest origins up to man, presents to us the 
image of a current of consciousness flowing against 
matter determined to force for itself a subterranean 
passage." 7 

With Bergson consciousness cannot be explained 
apart from matter, and vice versa; and even matter it- 
self he makes to be of an active type. In his Creative 
Evolution he says that matter is the inverse of con- 
sciousness. While "consciousness is action unceasingly 
creating and enriching itself . . . matter is action con- 
tinually unmaking itself or using itself up." A cre- 
ative consciousness is continually striving against mat- 
ter. "Things have happened just as though an im- 
mense current of consciousness, interpenetrated with 
potentialities of every kind, had traversed matter to 
draw it towards organization and make it, notwith- 

5 Bergson, Mind-Energy, p. 27. (Translation by Carr.) 

6 Ibid., p. 22. 

7 Ibid., p. 27. 

8 Ibid., p. 23. 



MODERN PSYCHOLOGY 57 

standing that it is necessity itself, an instrument of 
freedom." 9 In seeking to account for the origin of 
consciousness and matter he suggests that they both 
have a common source. 

As we go deeper into Bergson's philosophy the ques- 
tion naturally arises, What is the secret of this cease- 
less struggle? And then we learn that there must be 
an "impulse driving it (life) to take ever greater and 
greater risks toward its goal of an ever higher and 
higher efficiency." 10 He explains this ultimate guid- 
ing and developing element in Nature by what he calls 
the vital or original impetus. This vital principle 
continually operates in a way very suggestive of the 
energy concept. As generations of germs come and 
go, this impulse, in the processes of evolution, contin- 
ues to abide. Thus it is fundamental to the formation 
of variations and especially those new species which 
are permanent. As variations begin to appear they 
may become further and further from the original and 
yet may in particular ways show not only similarity, 
but identity as well, the original impetus being respon- 
sible for the situation. Thus Bergson's whole system 
is seen to be distinctively dynamic. 

McDougall, like James, would emphasize the will, 
saying that when two motives are competing for su- 
premacy the will is thrown on the side of one of them 
which leads to a volitional decision ; we thus "in some 
way add to the energy with which the idea of the one 
desired end maintains itself in opposition to its rival." 1X 

9 Ibid., p. 25. 

10 Ibid., p. 24. 

11 McDougall, Social Psychology, p. 246. 



58 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

But McDougall feels that there is something back of 
all this and suggests that "human activities, both men- 
tal and bodily are only to be explained or understood 
by tracing them back to a number of innate disposi- 
tions, tendencies to feel and act in certain more or less 
specific ways, in certain situations . . . like the simi- 
lar innate tendencies of the animals.'' 12 

Thorndike in his "Educational Psychology" says 
"these innate tendencies too bear the impetus and 
means to their own improvement." This makes them 
somewhat independent, self-directing and supporting. 
Thus we find many psychologists are pointing to the 
field of instincts as having a vital connection with all 
experiences, maintaining that "each instinct is a great 
source or spring of the psycho-physical energy that 
supports our bodily and mental activities." 

In modern Psychology we also find self being 
stressed as the abiding entity. Naturally then much 
is made of the self -re gar ding sentiment. According 
to Freud and his school, in the heart of this self is an 
unburied wish, which is persistent, imperishable and 
unfulfilled. This wish as a vitalistic element is so per- 
sistent that it is continually appealing for a chance for 
expression, and if thwarted once, will appear else- 
where, again and again, perhaps in a new form. 

Fundamental to all thought and activity is this ever 
striving wish, which is inherited from one generation 
to another. "Inherited wishes . . . are pulses of 
energy and not organic structure. Can the wish of 

12 McDougall, Social Psychology, p. 385. 



MODERN PSYCHOLOGY 59 

the parent arouse the same wish in the offspring ? Yes, 
if the wish is a pulse energy and not a structural prod- 
uct. The pulse which is a wish in consciousness passes 
through the whole organism affecting every part to 
some degree. The child in the womb or undischarged 
sex cell would be somewhat altered by the pulse. . . . 
The child thus receives the wish pulses aroused by the 
parent." 13 This wish then is an undying energetic 
principle running in the middle of the stream of human 
nature. As an active principle inherited from one 
generation to another, it reminds us somewhat of 
Bergson's original impetus which passes from one 
generation of germs to another, and which we have 
suggested as being very similar to the activities of a 
restless energy. 

Not only the Freudian school but others as well 
would root all these processes in the sex impulse. In 
the last few years there has been much of sex in 
psychological literature, as seen in the works of Freud, 
Hall, Ellis, and others. Barton, recognizing the re- 
lationship between religion and adolescence, says sex is 
the predominant source in religion. As a background 
of proof for this attitude reference is made to the 
genetic account of relationship of sex to religion in 
which it is shown that the curve of conversion which 
is the religious awakening, harmonizes with the fre- 
quency of accession to puberty, the peak for boys 
coming at the age of sixteen and seventeen and for 
girls thirteen and fourteen. 

But the fact as to whether or not this innate ten- 

13 Patten, The Monist — Article on the Divided Self. 



60 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

dency, this inner striving, this vitalistic principle with 
its processes roots down into the sex instinct does not 
interest us so much here as the fact that much in mod- 
ern psychology in teaching the presence of an innate 
tendency, is leaning toward a dynamic interpretation 
of life, and thus makes its definite contribution to the 
establishment of a relationship between this field of 
thought and the energy concept. 

Even in the philosophy of life itself, as it is being 
lived by the multitudes to-day, we meet a strain of the 
energy concept. Such terms as "up and doing," "wide 
awake," "full of life," "on the go," "full of pep," all 
bespeak life with a large expenditure of energy. And 
this is present day life. The passive life is altogether 
out of harmony with the spirit of the times. The 
gospel of to-day is that of action. 

Rudolph Eucken in his philosophy of activism is the 
apostle of this type of thought. His works beam with 
a dynamic interpretation of life. Passivity is diamet- 
rically opposed to his idea of real life. The individual 
who plays only a passive part in life's work not only 
fails to make his expected contribution but fails in the 
development of his own self. We find ourselves only 
as we fight to work out our own salvation. We cannot 
expect to 

"Be carried to the skies 
On flowery beds of ease," 



but must 



'Fight to win the prize, 

And sail through bloody seas." 



MODERN PSYCHOLOGY 61 

We come to the full realization of the beauty and 
worth of life only as the spiritual self triumphs over 
the resistance which it meets in the world. Activity 
is the only avenue through which one can take his 
place in the world of real values. Thus a life full of 
energy and organized toward right ends is reality it- 
self. 

So we see that in the philosophy of the past, in con- 
temporary psychology, and even in the philosophy of 
life there is strong support for the attitude of modern 
science which is definitely declaring its belief in a 
dynamic conception of reality. 



Part II: ENERGY AS A SPIRITUAL 
FORCE 



Chapter I 

THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF 
ENERGY 

In the first part we set out to learn, if possible, the 
identity of that something which in the midst of un- 
ceasing change, continues to abide; that something 
which constitutes the ultimate essence of the world. 
It was seen that the search for ultimate reality was not 
anything new but that the inquiry concerning final 
reality constitutes a strong current in the general 
stream of philosophical endeavor. Finally, we came 
to the conclusion that that abiding something is energy 
and endeavored to show that from the standpoint of 
science and philosophy the whole universe is to be 
conceived in terms of energy. 

Also it was seen that many of the profound thinkers 
recognized a mysterious, dynamic principle in Nature 
and ascribed to it wonderful possibilities. This ener- 
getic conception seemed to prevail until the seventeenth 
century when a mechanistic interpretation began to 
predominate. But science and philosophy seemingly 
failed to find satisfaction in a cold, dead, mechanical 
system, with the result that the dynamic conception of 
reality began to reappear, receiving a new emphasis, 
until to-day science is speaking out boldly, saying that 
not only does dynamism justifiably take precedence 

65 



66 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

over mechanical materialism but that reality itself is 
energy. 

THEORIES OF ENERGY 

There are several theories of energy as outlined by 
Cooley in his book, The Principles of Science: 

(i) Energy is given a place as substance beside 
matter; it is made to be a universal, formative agency. 
Matter is the means through and by which energy ac- 
complishes its purposes, the something which it shapes. 
This, then, is a dualistic attitude, there being two sub- 
stances — energy and matter. 

(2) The second view makes matter the only sub- 
stance, and energy is simply the name representing its 
activities. Energetic phenomena are simply matter in 
action. So we call heat, chemical affinity, electricity, 
etc., different forms of matter's activities. 

(3) "We may think of energy as the true funda- 
mental substance of the world, and matter as one of 
its modes, its more highly organized form. This is 
the conception embodied in the electronic theory of 
matter, or at least in one form of it. According to 
that conception fundamental existence is essentially 
active — a heaving ocean of being — but it is not active 
matter; it is that more subtle, weightless agency which 
we call electricity. This, which is the real agent in all 
that goes on in the physical world, the root of all nat- 
ural forces, exists in the form of more or less discrete 
and extremely active units (electrons). 1 . . . Thus 
we may think of it as itself the one fundamental 

1 Cooley, The Principles of Science, pp. 126-127. 



SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF ENERGY 67 

(physical) existence, manifold in all forms, ceaselessly 
active in its nature." 2 

It is the third view which modern thought is coming 
more and more to accept. And the more we study the 
present scientific attitude the more are we amazed at 
the large field of facts which the term energy is selected 
to represent. Thus it seems that at this time, by way 
of explanation, it should be said that the word energy 
with its established meaning in our vocabulary is really 
not big enough to represent all that science means when 
using the term. Since we are making energy stand for 
so much, it would be more satisfactory if a new word 
had been introduced into the list of scientific terms. 
With these facts in mind regarding the use of the term 
energy we now approach the immediate task of en- 
deavoring to interpret what seems to be the facts of its 
inner content. 



THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS 

Having reached the conclusion that reality is energy, 
we now want to know what this energy is. Ours is an 
ontological problem and naturally leads us in our in- 
quiries into an attempt to obtain a critical understand- 
ing of what "being" really is. Apparently the old 
philosophers were satisfied to say that reality was 
earth, air, fire, water, etc., and being just pioneers in 
the field of scientific investigation could not with posi- 
tive assurance get close to the heart of their problems. 
Science to-day is past the place where it is willing to 
take very much for granted and is dissatisfied unless it 

2 Ibid., p. 128. 



68 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

can get on the inside of its investigated subjects. 
With the models of the centuries at hand and with 
accumulated insight and improved scientific methods, 
we have a right to expect a scientific progress com- 
mensurate with the advantages which the present en- 
joys, in relation to the past. So we must not stop 
with the general concept of energy but inquire con- 
cerning its qualitative aspects. 

Since science to-day is operating on the assumption 
that energy is that element fundamental to all forms of 
existence and which represents the final analysis of 
all things, it is logical for us to adopt the short-cut 
method and simply knock at the door of chemistry and 
physics and ask, What is energy ? 

We go to the physicist and ask him for a definition 
of matter and he tells us it is "an aggregation of elec- 
tric charges." If we ask for a definition of energy he 
says it is the "capacity for doing work"; and if urged 
to be more concrete he may say it is "force times the 
distance." Then if we ask for a definition of reality 
we are told that that does not belong to physics but to 
another field of thought, philosophy. 

Thus we make the discovery that the scientist con- 
cerns himself very little with our side of the problem. 
He deals with energy chiefly in its quantative aspects 
and is not as persistent in his endeavor to make a quali- 
tative analysis. It seems that the interest of science 
in this latter phase is measured and determined by the 
amount of philosophy which happens to be therein. 

"Who or what moves bodies, in the sense of agency 
or potency, is for scientific purposes a negligible ques- 



SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF ENERGY 69 

tion." 3 In dealing with energy the end of the physi- 
cist and chemist are met primarily in the mathematico 
relationships. 

In our study of the energy concept, we are interested 
in this problem from a qualitative standpoint. The 
"number, length, breadth, volume, interval," etc., will 
not suffice for our purpose; nor is it satisfactory to 
stop with saying that things behave thus and so as they 
are influenced by certain causes. We want to go 
deeper than this and know "why" and "how" these 
causes operate. And since our immediate objective is 
to analyze reality qualitatively, we have a goal, there- 
fore, which is very different from that which could be 
reached by means of mathematical science. 

In probing into the question concerning the attri- 
butes of energy we read with great interest, in de 
Tunzelmann's Problem of the Universe, the state- 
ment that "the concept of the ether has led us to the 
conclusion that energy is a more fundamental concept 
than either ether or matter. It is therefore more fun- 
damental than the concept of mass, so that the indicated 
path of progress is not the remodeling of our repre- 
sentation in order to make it capable of simpler ex- 
pression in terms of a system of dynamics in which 
mass was regarded as fundamental. What we have to 
contemplate is, in my opinion, the remodeling of our 
system of dynamics on the basis of energy in the place 
of mass. We may then begin to contemplate the ulti- 
mate possibility of a future remodeling in which mind 
3 Perry, Present Philosophical Tendencies, p. 53. 



70 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

will replace energy as the fun tal basis of the 

physical scheme." 4 

Chamberlain lends emphasis to this attitude in say- 
ing that "an immeasurably higher evolution than that 
now reached, with attainments beyond present compre- 
hension, is a reasonable hope. The forecast of an eon 
of intellectual and spiritual development comparable 
in magnitude to the prolonged physical and biotic evo- 
lutions lends to the total view of earth-history great 
moral satisfaction." 5 

Also, Perry says, "If it is impossible to construe the 
world in terms of thought or in terms of moral life, 
there yet remains a further conception, complete 
enough to embrace these and every other possible 
value — the conception of a universal spiritual life that 
shall be infinitely various and infinitely rich." These 
attitudes point to the same possible conception of real- 
ity; they stress the sr: pt. 

Since, as we have suggested before, physical science 
offers no answer to our legitimate demands for a quali- 
tative interpretation of energy, we are therefore forced 
to make our own hypothesis respecting its inner na- 
ture; and are encouraged by the tendency of modern 
thought, as mentioned above, to champion a belief in 
the hypothesis which says that energy is of a spiritual, 
' '::.'. nature. 

This hypothesis is what in philosophy is called 
spiritualism, and gains for its support whatever 

4 de Tunzelmann. Preface to The Electrical Theory and the 
Problem of the Universe, pp. 15-16. (Italics are mine.) 

5 Cha-:berl=ir. ar.d Salisbury, Introductory Geology, p. 684. 

6 Pern-, Present Philosophical Tendencies, p. 153- 



SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF ENERGY 71 

strength there is in this system of belief. There are 
many important facts in philosophy with which spirit- 
ualism is in harmony and whose problems this theory 
helps to solve. While on the other hand, any theory 
which opposes these outstanding facts or leaves them 
without explanation, must in its very nature be looked 
upon as incomplete. In the approach to this part of 
our task, ours is a virgin field. We repeat, while 
science is looking upon reality as energy it offers no 
qualitative interpretation of energy. This being true, 
the spiritualistic hypothesis, as such, is legitimate, and 
since it will be verified as far as it explains things 
which need explanation, can demand a respectful hear- 
ing. 



THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS AND THE CREATIVE IDEA 

In the first place, a spiritual interpretation of reality 
helps to solve the problem of creation. There is a 
prevailing notion in modern thought that creation is 
not a finished fact, a thing of the past, but as a prin- 
ciple inheres in the life of the present. "Traces of evi- 
dence are lately beginning to come into view, which 
are highly suggestive of continuous present day crea- 
tion of matter at the inorganic level, and of creation 
of life from inorganic materials at the organic level." 7 
A creative workmanship seems to be characteristic of 
all Nature, underlying which is a dynamic, energetic 
principle. This vital, creative impulse is continually 
reaching its objective. It is not strange, then, that in 
the recent movements of thought we should meet repre- 

7 Moore, The Origin and Nature of Life, p. 31. 



72 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

sentatives of creative evolution, creative synthesis, cre- 
ative intelligence. It seems there is no fact in modern 
philosophy which looms up quite so large as the crea- 
tive idea. But in this incessant life of continuous crea- 
tion there must be more than an interplay of mechani- 
cal agencies. A creative activity is difficult to conceive 
apart from spirit. 

THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS AND VITALISM 

Again, we have seen how general is the stream of 
vitalism which runs through philosophical and scientific 
thought. It holds a prominent place in the history of 
thought because there are strong evidences of it in 
Nature. If there are remarkable evidences of a vitalis- 
tic principle in Nature we are justified in believing it 
to be there. Even the "naked eye" reveals to us Nature 
throbbing with a fervent life. In fact we have con- 
cluded that reality is energy. Can we think of a vital- 
istic principle rooting itself in mechanism ? Hardly so. 
Nor can we conceive of vitalism out of relation to 
spirit. History and personal experience have clearly 
shown that a mechanical "letter of the law" program 
kills, while it is the spirit which gives life. Interpret- 
ing energy spiritually seems to furnish the only explan~ 
ation for the presence of the vitalistic element inherent 
in Nature. 

The mechanistic interpretation may satisfy in a 
limited way but unless spirit is posited back of all 
this, it is impossible to beat down the troublesome 
question, Whence came this great piece of smoothly 
working machinery — the universe? Here the me- 



SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF ENERGY 73 

chanical materialist, although applying his interest in- 
tensively to other tasks, takes things as he finds them 
and asks no questions. It is genuinely inconsistent 
and unsatisfactory to pass up the problem of origin in 
this way; it smacks too much of incompleteness. 



THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS AND TELEOLOGY 

In observing the harmonious relationships charac- 
terizing the activities of the universe, most thinkers 
are inclined to say with Tennyson, 

, "Yet, I doubt not through the ages, one increasing purpose 
runs." 

And Henderson, speaking as a bio-chemist in the 
Order of Nature, stresses the impossibility of ignoring 

, the fact that there is a purposive tendency in things. 
The evident expression of intelligence which is met 

: everywhere has been explained by many as a teleologi- 
cal provision on the part of a great Designer. There 
is evidence of teleology in Nature, but the old system 
of teleology is not satisfactory, because it makes God 
too much of a transcendent Being. Realizing that the 
kingdom of heaven is within us, modern thought is 
making him less of a sky God and is giving him his 
rightful place in the very heart of life. He is not only 
transcendent but is immanent as well. It is inconceive- 
able that a ruling King should be living outside his 
kingdom. 

Many teleologists are thus modifying their attitude 
somewhat and are advocating what might be called an 



74 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

immanent teleology. The problem of an intelligent 
principle guiding all existing forms to the highest ends 
possible, easily finds its solution in a spiritual system 
of reality. 



THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS AND EVOLUTION 

Then, too, a spiritualistic program helps with the 
problem of evolution. It is a well-known fact that the 
discovery of this theory has revolutionized science. 
Modern thought is strongly inclined to a belief in crea- 
tive evolution, and this principle being true, its cause 
can hardly be found in a cold system of materialism. 
Generally speaking, there seems to be a missing link 
in evolution. If one is willing to stay on the outside 
and simply take facts as they come, then probably a 
general mechanical theory of evolution will suffice. 

There are those who would follow in the footsteps 
of Hobbes and apply a mechanical interpretation even 
to the facts of the mind, thus reducing all mental phe- 
nomena to a system of physics. But this method would 
force us to live in a lifeless age, similar, for instance, 
to that outlined in Pearson's Grammar of Science, 
And also, a system such as this fails to account 
for the richness and reality of human experiences. No 
human being would be satisfied to live in a world 
which could offer only hypotheses. Thus we cannot 
afford unreservedly to adopt a system which can only 
say "it happens so every time," mere chance, and then 
stop with that. 

The evolution of progress can find no justification 
in the realm of chance; nor can it be explained by a 



SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF ENERGY 75 

system of mechanism. It is when we place spirit at 
the bottom of the whole evolutionary process that evo- 
lution becomes more reasonable and complete; and a 
satisfactory explanation of its inner working is given, 
for we have thus introduced tJie possibility of a vitalis- 
tic, knowing quality. 



Chapter II 

HISTORICAL SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL 
THEORY 

Early in our work a study was made of the philos- 
ophy of those men in whose systems could be found a 
strong dynamic element, the purpose being to show 
that from the beginning of philosophical inquiry an 
energetic interpretation of reality has characterized 
many of the strongest systems. Now we shall pass in 
review some of those writers whose conceptions are 
distinctively spiritual, confirming our attitude that 
many of the best students working with the problem 
of reality interpret it spiritually, thus helping to estab- 
lish the hypothesis that energy operates as a spiritual 
force. 

LEIBNITZ 

In Leibnitz* philosophy we have what is perhaps the 
most elaborate spiritual system ever formulated. His 
interpretation of reality has already been presented, 
because of its dynamic, energetic qualities, suggesting 
a close relationship to the energy concept. As our 
immediate interest now has to do with the qualitative 
aspects of this concept, his theory is re-stated some- 
what in detail, from the angle of its spiritual import. 

Leibnitz resolves everything into centers of psychic, 
spiritual force which are without parts, extension or 

76 



SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 77 

form and are indivisible and immaterial. In the Atom- 
ism of that day these little units were material but with 
Leibnitz they were distinctively spiritual. These "sim- 
ple substances'' constitute ultimate reality; they differ 
from each other in quality but not in quantity, 1 each 
being self-sufficient and a little world unto itself. This 
is somewhat similar to the modern idea of the atom 
which elsewhere we have likened to an independent lit- 
tle solar system. 

Not only are the highest types of being concerned, 
but the very substance of all reality is found in these 
psychical, spiritual units. The lowest classification is 
to be found in minerals, plants, etc., and here the cen- 
ters of force are called monads. Here we meet percep- 
tion just the same, but it is not clear or conscious, the 
grade of thought being something like a stupor. Also 
here as in all forms of being each monad has in itself 
a principle of striving to a higher condition of activity 
or perception. The clearness of perception is not only 
proportionate to the activity of the monads but condi- 
tions their grade or classification. The confused per- 
ception of the lowest state is illustrated by the wave 
sounds of the sea; we know that each wave makes its 
individual contribution to the general sound, yet it is 
impossible to perceive them separately, the attempt re- 
sulting in confused perception. This is the characteris- 
tic thought life of minerals and plants. 

The psychical, "simple substances," fundamental in 
all Nature, whose perception is more distinct and as- 
sociated with feeling and memory are called souls. 
Memory which is the sign of consciousness is the dif- 

1 Latta, Leibnitz: the Monadology, p. 221 ff. 



78 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

ferentiating factor between the lowest types of being 
and animal life. 

Human beings have a clear perception and thus live 
in a higher scale of being. Having reason and knowl- 
edge, they can come to a knowledge of themselves and 
even of God. This quality in man is called rational 
soul or mind. There is just one Being who 
experiences the full power of perception, God, who is 
infinite and absolutely perfect. Thus we see the whole 
universe to be alive with thought, the principle of per- 
ception prevailing from the most insignificant thing up 
to God. 

In his "Monadology" then Leibnitz has built up a 
vast, closely woven system of spiritualism. All reality 
roots itself in psychical centers of force. These, while in- 
dividually self-sufficient, together constitute all Nature. 
In the smallest portion of matter there is a large group 
of these active, living monads. "Each portion of mat- 
ter may be conceived as like a garden full of plants 
and like a pond full of fishes. But each branch of 
every plant, each member of every animal, each drop 
of its liquid parts is also some such garden or pond." 2 
Each living body has its central or ruling monad. 
Then each member of this living body is full of living 
creatures clustering about a central monad or soul. 
These little particles surrounding the ruling soul con- 
tinually but slowly change, thus never giving the soul 
an entirely new body, while the soul itself does not 
change. The central monad is always associated with 
some such body of changing creatures, God being the 

2 Latta, Leibnitz: the Monadology, p. 256 ff. 



SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 79 

only Spirit free from a body. No matter then to what 
forms of being we might appeal, spiritual centers of 
force are found to be fundamental to all reality. 



HEGEL 

In Hegel's philosophy ''everything is spirit; spirit is 
everything." The ultimate essence of the universe , its 
true reality is found in this self -operating, inner spirit- 
ual principle which is fundamental to all Nature. 
Spirit finds expression in three forms, subjective, ob- 
jective, and absolute, covering the entire field of activ- 
ities. 

The subjective spirit strives through the power of 
the will to bring the spiritual life of the individual to 
that place of experience where it is free and independ- 
ent of its environment, and is not satisfied until it 
reaches the goal of its ambition. The objective spirit 
is identical with the spiritual life finding expression in 
the everyday phases and functions of life. Here the 
will asserts itself in the forms and customs common 
to human relationships. In a particular institution, 
for instance, we have a single manifestation of the all- 
pervading spirit. The absolute spirit is the blending of 
the subjective and objective spirit. Here we have an 
active, unifying consciousness, absolute reality itself. 
All differences between subjective and objective ex- 
periences fade away. This self-assertive, absolute 
spirit moves up into satisfied realization chiefly through 
the forms afforded by the fields of art, religion, and 
philosophy. 



80 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

WUNDT 

Wundt has built up a system of idealism, which re- 
minds us somewhat of Leibnitz' theory of monads. 
Leibnitz made his monads centers of perception while 
Wundt makes his units of will. Here we do not hear 
so much about matter, substance, mind, and soul, but 
speak in terms of ideas, psychical processes, will units. 
His whole system is built around the activities of the 
will, for it is the only thing of which we are definitely 
sure. "There is absolutely nothing outside of man, 
nor in him, which he can call fully and wholly his own, 
except his will." 

All experiences cluster about the will, not because 
there is an external initiating force, but because in the 
will and only in the will itself there is a spontaneity 
of activity which is responsible for all relationships. 
The organization of activities toward ends originates 
and is sustained by the psychical processes representing 
the will. 

God is the universal Will and its objectivation is 
the realization of itself in the will units of the world, 
in which there is an opposition of activity and pas- 
sivity, constituting ultimate reality. It is only as 
every will is related to wills that this reciprocal rela- 
tionship is obtained and it is only in these reciprocal 
experiences, which offer an explanation for the pas- 
sive state, that we have reality. 

SCHOPENHAUER 

To get Schopenhauer's idea of the qualitative as- 
pects of reality we must understand what an important 



SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 81 

place he gives to will. He would say the very essence 
of life is the will. This principle will is inherent and 
dominant not only in man but in all things. It is the 
guiding, driving force in the general process of evolu- 
tion. In the principle of selection which seems to be 
operating all the time, it is the will which causes cer- 
tain parts of the organisms to grow and adjust them- 
selves for particular duties while at the same time al- 
lowing others to die. For instance, some animals are 
equipped with instruments for fighting and killing, be- 
cause that is what they will to do. The will not only aids 
in the organization of the organisms but enjoys a pre- 
existence in relation to them. Amid all those things 
which come and go, it is the abiding fact. All things 
are the product of the will. The world is but this 
principle realizing its great ends. The will is much 
greater than the phenomenal world which is just the 
object of thought; it is greater than thought which is 
simply its by-product. This striving principle then, 
which is reality for Schopenhauer, must be given a set- 
ting in spiritualism far above everything that partakes 
of the material. 



The philosophy of Plato is presented at this time in 
our study of energy, not because it is energetic but 
because his elaborate system of idealism makes a large 
contribution toward the unfolding of our immediate 
problem — showing that reality is to be interpreted 
spiritually. 

In Plato, the first and greatest idealist, we meet an 



82 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

exalted and beautiful system which believes there are 
higher realities than matter and motion and the world 
of sense perception. "Plato points up, Aristotle 
down." Most fundamental in his philosophy is the 
search for ultimate and absolute values, the abiding 
and unchanging elements in the flux of phenomena. 
Plato believed with Browning that there is a right 
ever right and a wrong ever wrong. 

True knowledge does not come to us by way of the 
senses. Such knowledge, often being deceiving, is 
simply opinion. The highest type, the scientific, comes 
from the mind through thought and reason. Matter 
is not the reality of the world. Plato would say with 
James that the world of wind and weather is not the 
real world. Outside the scope of the senses is another 
realm, a spiritual world, the realm of "deals, of values. 
It is possible for us to rise above the world of shadows 
into this realm of being, into the real world of ideas. 

With Plato, ideas only are real; all else is simply ap- 
pearance. These ideas are incorporeal, immaterial, but 
are hardly psychical or spiritual according to the mod- 
ern interpretation of these terms, ideas belonging to 
even a higher state of being than the psychical or spirit- 
ual. He would place the psychical functions in the 
world of Becoming and would place ideas in the realm 
of Being. Ideas are not necessarily in the mind but 
are essences, ideals, the highest and best being those 
of the Good. In this program ei 60? is that something 
which science has been eagerly striving to know, real- 
ity itself. "The world of true reality is but never be- 
comes; the world of relative reality becomes but never 
is. 



SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 83 

"The unfathomable depth of human personality is 
essentially Plato's doctrine." Reality is divine and the 
soul is akin to it. The Soul is a simple, incorporeal 
being belonging both to the world of ideas and the 
world of sensuous material change, but belongs pri- 
marily to the higher world. It is the principle of life 
and motion. 

Hence Plato is considered the father of idealism, and 
as over against mechanical force, he makes intelligence 
to be the real moving power in the world. This places 
him in the forefront of those who have taught the pres- 
ence of the invisible soul operating in Nature, and who 
have given an interpretation of reality diametrically 
opposed to materialism. 

SYSTEMS PARTIALLY SPIRITUALISTIC 

There are four important systems of thought which 
probably have no definite place in a program whose 
chief immediate interest is in trying to show that all 
things are of a spiritual nature, even the very world of 
"material phenomena" — Aristotle, the Stoics, Des- 
cartes, and Kant. Especially is this true of the Stoics 
who were really materialists and of Descartes with 
whom mind and matter are equally real. And while 
these systems, by no means make spirit all of reality 
and cannot even approach being classified as spiritualis- 
tic, we mention them here, parenthetically, to show 
how unable were the leaders in these schools of thought 
to complete their systems without giving a "real" place 
to spirit. This is particularly true of Kant's philosophy, 
but let us first examine Aristotle. 



54 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

ARISTOTLE 

To understand Aristotle's philosophy of reality it is 
necessary to know his meaning of tyvxrj because it is 
to this that he gives supreme place in all life and 
activity. With him tpvxy (breath) is more than we 
mean by soul; it really represents what is wrapped 
up in the terms Life and Mind, and we have no Eng- 
lish word which can represent the combined thought. 
Sometimes it is called Vital Principle, sometimes Soul. 
This Vital Principle, though there is just one, has its 
representation in every part of the body. It and the 
body are not one, but they so relate themselves to 
each other as to constitute a unity. As Life finds its 
highest expression in Mind, so the chief characteristic 
of the Soul or Vital Principle is thought. 

This Vital Principle is the essence of Life. It is "the 
original reality of a natural body endowed with po- 
tential life. . . . If then there be any general formula 
for every kind of Vital Principle it is — the primary 
reality of an organism." 3 It is a vitalizing influence, 
not only holding the body together but constituting the 
energy of the body. This is true not only of man but 
also of all animals and plants as well. In plants and 
all such simple organisms the Vital Principle is of a 
lower degree of vitality. Aristotle was not sure 
whether this Soul experiences self-activity or is moved 
by some outside force, but if the latter be true the 
operation of the outside influence is possible only 
through the sensations as a medium. So we find his 

s Aristotle, Lewes, p. 231. 



SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 85 

*P V XV , "the breath of life" as a "primary reality/' to 
be not only dynamic but also spiritual. 



STOICS 

Even in the Stoics a spiritual strain is seen running 
through their idea of the real. In matter we find 
Spirit; in the world, God. In fact the world and God 
seem to constitute something of an identity, God being 
a vital element pervading all things, the very Soul of 
the world. God, however, is not made to be so gen- 
eral as to rule out his individual consciousness. Be- 
tween all things enjoying a conscious soul life there 
is a definite relationship, closer than that which they 
experience with lower types of creation. The Stoics 
would not only say that everything outside of God is 
his body but that all these things came from his own 
self and thither will return again. God being a soul, 
then everything can be traced in its origin to a soul 
life, and must partake somewhat of the qualities of the 
great Spirit. 



DESCARTES 

With Descartes the fundamental principle is con- 
scious thought. He seems to have brushed all ,else 
aside as uncertain and gave to philosophy a new start- 
ing point. He would say we cannot build our system 
of philosophy on things external which we do not 
know. Only those things "which are clearly and dis- 



86 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

tinctly perceived are true." Cogito, ergo sum — I 
think, therefore I am. The fact that I think establishes 
the thinker as a certainty. Even in doubting we have 
evidence of a thinking doubter. We can doubt every- 
thing else but not the doubter, of which we are certainly 
conscious. Thus consciousness becomes the criterion 
of knowledge, and the thinking, psychical being is the 
only certain, and the most real, thing in all the world. 
Thus according to Descartes the successful search for 
real values, ultimate reality, leads into the field of 
psychical interpretation. 

KANT 

At first, Kant's philosophy seems to be a system of 
mere phenomena. We begin with the presupposition 
that the real things of the world are those which are 
objects of sense. We find then that these are phenom- 
ena only. It is soon seen, however, that Kant is not 
willing to stop here. Since the mind is not satisfied 
with less than a complete whole and since knowledge 
does not give this to us, we are compelled to base our 
hopes on an investigation of moral consciousness. In 
this search Kant is led to feel sure that back of phe- 
nomena there is a world of ultimate reality and his in- 
vestigation into the nature and limits of knowledge 
shows to him the possibility of a noumenal self which 
is free and untrammeled. He calls this the "thing in 
itself" (Ding an sich), that something which is left 
after everything with which the senses and knowledge 
have to do is brushed aside. Although it can be in- 
terpreted only by a divine intelligence we know there 



SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 87 

is a "thing in itself" because there must be an objective 
something which causes our sensations. The fact that 
we may not understand noumenal things does not at 
all exclude the possibility of their existence. 

What is this noumenal something, this "thing in it- 
self" which lies beyond the world of sense and knowl- 
edge? Is it the "I think" which as "an act of spon- 
taneity, cannot possibly be due to sense," 4 and "which 
because of its spontaneous activity, is the only thing 
to which we may possibly attribute noumenal 
reality" ? 4 Is it the will which with Kant is the only 
absolutely good thing in the world and which is good 
because it wills to be good? These two, the "I think" 
and the will are identical, for to both he attributes the 
qualities of complete noumena. "This spontaneous 
activity, the 'I think' of the Critique of Pure Reason is 
nothing else than the autonomous will (final reality) 
of the Metaphysic of Morality and the later 
Critiques." 5 And it is in the doctrine of the primacy 
of the will we meet the real Kant; with him the will 
stands for absolute values. Thus with Kant the realm 
of real things reaches beyond the world of material 
phenomena, into the richer world of psychical relation- 
ships. 

BERGSON 

We now come to Bergson and find him teaching a 
system of philosophy which offers genuine support to 
a spiritualistic program. In the first Part it was found 

4 Watson's Selections from Kant, p. 65. 

5 Schreiber, Kant's Theory of the Primacy of the Will, p. 28. 



88 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

that Bergson introduced into his conception of reality 
a dynamic element which he called the vital impetus. 
At that time we were satisfied with the discovery of 
this single fact, but now we want to get his idea of 
this vitalistic quality which is so fundamental to life. 
So from a qualitative standpoint we shall probe deeper 
into his philosophy of reality to see if it is not of a 
psychical order. 

In his Creative Evolution is met the belief that 
every moment brings something new into existence. 
"Reality appears as a ceaseless up-springing of some- 
thing new, which has no sooner arisen to make the pres- 
ent than it has already fallen back into the past." 6 
Life is one continuous process of Becoming; it "is a 
tendency, and the essence of a tendency is to develop in 
the form of a sheaf, creating by its very growth, di- 
vergent directions among which its impetus is di- 
vided." 7 

Fundamental in this process of development is the 
original impetus of life which passes from one genera- 
tion of germs to another. This is the inner directing 
principle, the ultimately real factor that drives all 
things to an activity and not only carries life but is the 
essence of all life. This vital principle takes matter 
and shapes it. "Life had to enter thus into the habits 
of inert matter in order to draw it little by little, mag- 
netized, as it were, to another track. The animate 
forms that first appeared were therefore of extreme 
simplicity. They were probably tiny masses of scarcely 
differentiated protoplasm, outwardly resembling the 

6 Creative Evolution, p. 47. 

7 Ibid., p. 99. 



SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 89 

amoeba observable to-day, but possessed of the tremen- 
dous internal push that was to raise them even to the 
highest forms of life. That in virtue of this push the 
first organisms sought to grow as much as possible, 
seems likely." s But the matter with which the origi- 
nal impetus has to work is not a hard, cold substance. 
Characterized by a "tendency," an ascending move- 
ment, matter finds itself susceptible to the guiding, 
shaping influence of the vital impetus. 

In trying to find an image that will give us an idea 
of this impetus Bergson has to leave the physical world 
and go to the psychical. Consciousness becomes for 
him the motive principle in all development. He says 
that "if our analysis is correct, it is consciousness, or 
rather supra-consciousness, that is at the origin of 
life." 9 Consciousness then, which is real life, is the 
representation of that vital principle which pervades 
all things. We are told that there is a consciousness 
slumbering in instinct, which if finding expression 
through knowledge instead of action would reveal to 
us the deepest secrets of life. In his Creative Evolu- 
tion we hear him say that "real duration is to be 
found in the realm of life and consciousness" and in 
his Introduction to Metaphysics he says that "real 
duration is of a psychical nature." Thus we are not 
surprised to hear him say that "in reality, life is of the 
psychological order, and it is of the essence of the 
psychical to enfold a confused plurality of interpene- 
trating forms." In summing up it can be said that 
"he sees as the mystic sees, that the Elan Vital is the 
energy of one Being which makes matter its means of 

8 Ibid., p. 99. 9 Ibid., p. 257. 



90 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

manifestation, its vehicle, its tool. He sees that the 
process of Becoming is a spiritual process of ascen- 
sion/' 10 

Corroboration of this interpretation of Bergson is 
found in the Preface to Carr's translation of Mind- 
Energy. After saying that Bergson went over the 
material very carefully with him in order to give the 
translation the same authority as the original French, 
Carr then says that "the separate articles here collected 
and selected . . . are chosen by M. Bergson with the 
view of illustrating his concept that reality is funda- 
mentally a spiritual activity" X1 



EUCKEN AND ROYCE 

In Eucken and Royce we have two men who have 
strongly represented a philosophy of spiritualism, both 
of whose systems have a distinctly religious bent. 
Royce is convinced that true reality is spiritual in its 
nature and that the ultimate ground of things is an 
eternal, divine world-order. "From the constant in- 
teraction of minds he infers the existence of an eternal, 
divine being which is spiritual and eternal." 12 Royce 
thinks "we have no right whatever to speak of really 
unconscious Nature, but only of uncommunicative Na- 
ture," and when we deal with Nature we "deal with a 
vast realm of finite consciousness of which our own 
is at once a part and an example." 13 

10 Sinclair, Defense of Idealism, p. 288. (Italics are mine.) 

11 Carr, Preface to Bergson's Mind-Energy, p. v. (Italics are 
mine.) 

12 Jerusalem, Introduction to Philosophy, pp. 150-151. 

13 Royce, The World and the Individual, pp. 225-226. 



SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 91 

Eucken looks within the thinking creature for the 
source of reality. "It is impossible to hide from our- 
selves that Nature, as we see it, does not come to us 
from the outside as a ready-made fact, but that it 
starts from our own thinking, and under the influence 
of our intellectual organization, takes on the shape in 
which it lies before us." 14 He teaches a monism which 
is really an important process, deeper than and funda- 
mental to both materialism and spiritualism. Eucken 
lifts his philosophy into the realm of life itself and life 
becomes "a transformation of reality into a whole 
endowed with soul." This resultant, vital process 
becomes the goal and reality of life, because in itself 
complete satisfaction and fullness are realized. In this 
real activity the revivifying, guiding, controlling ele- 
ment is the spiritual which enjoys perfection and com- 
pleteness only as it masters matter. 

So in all the systems which we have reviewed, the 
search for truth about reality takes us past things ma- 
terial and points with strong emphasis to the realm of 
the spiritual. And that something which Plato calls 
ideas, Leibnitz monads, Schopenhauer will, Bergson 
the vital impetus, and which we are calling energy is 
to be interpreted as a spiritual force. 

14 Eucken, The Life of the Spirit, p. 188. (Translation by 
Pogson.) 



Chapter III 

THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION- 
CONCLUDED 

Since we have found that all physical reality is 
energy, and then further set forth the hypothesis that 
the ultimate quality of energy is psychical, we would 
seem to be in position to interpret the well-known facts 
regarding the influence of the mind upon the body in 
a new and seemingly satisfactory way — making the 
mind and body to be parts of one vast system of psychi- 
cal energy. Hitherto this whole problem has per- 
plexed thinkers from Descartes to the present, and as 
yet the effect of the mind upon the body has not been 
consistently explained. A thorough-going dualism, 
even though it has been resuscitated by McDougall, 1 
is repugnant to the law of continuity, which evolution 
has so greatly strengthened. 

After finding spiritualism able to make a definite 
contribution toward a better understanding of such 
significant problems as creation, vitalism, teleology, 
and evolution; and finding in the history of thought 
such strong support for the spiritualistic interpreta- 
tion, it probably would be in order at this place in our 
program of showing that energy is spiritual, to intro- 
duce as a genuine presupposition a psychic element 
active in all Nature. It may be, however, that the ma- 
terialist would still challenge our right to this assump- 

1 McDougall, Body and Mind. 

92 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 93 

tion, saying that our source of explanation is not suf- 
ficiently criticized. Then we might reply by placing 
the burden of proof with the individual of this atti- 
tude and assign to him the more difficult task of show- 
ing why, if all Nature is not endowed with a psychic 
quality, it acts so much like it ; why it seems that 

"Every clod feels a stir of might, 
An instinct within that reaches and towers; 
And groping blindly above it for light, 
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers." 

But this method of procedure would get us no place 
in particular. So before drawing conclusions we shall 
need to look at our problem a little further. 

Our work here in dealing with the qualitative as- 
pects of energy, which we are calling reality, cannot 
be taken into the laboratory and handled as an ordinary 
scientific problem. We must search for facts in sys- 
tems of thought and test these beliefs by their practi- 
cal consequences, judging not by laws, customs, or 
principles but by fruits. We have already done this in 
a general way in the case of such facts as creation, vi- 
talism, teleology, and evolution. 

In this chapter it will be our plan first to examine 
the relationship between mind and body. From this 
investigation it will seem probably true that the mind 
is the ultimately guiding, determining, and original 
factor figuring in these relationships. While there 
may be evidence denying the priority of mind this 
excursus will at least make it impossible, seemingly, to 
doubt the existence of a psychical element. Then later 
we shall apply the attitude of representative modern 



94 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

thought to our hypothesis, trying further to show that 
psychical energy is a fact, that it is universal and the 
only reality, and finally suggest a theory of reality on 
the basis of organized units of psychical energy. If 
ancient and modern thought, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, declares itself in favor of our hypothesis it is 
because the belief in psychical reality has stood the 
test; and if the converging lines of testimony in its 
favor are sufficient, then it should be regarded as true. 



THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM 

It is very clear that science is not willing to stop with 
the well-established hypothesis which says, no psych- 
osis without a neurosis. Thus we want to go beneath 
this, if possible, and get a clew concerning this rela- 
tionship between the mind and body. In the first place 
we shall introduce the part which will plays in de- 
termining the issues of the bodily functions. As we 
proceed it is seen that in a large measure Kant was 
right in believing we can do what we will to do. 

The field is large from which could be culled facts 
having to do with the power of the will over the body, 
but from a multiplicity of experiences we mention 
simply the case of an individual who is severely ill, 
life being in the very balance. By sheer determination 
to live, sufficient vitality is thrown on the side of life, 
and will becomes the determining factor, cheating death 
of its victim. A leading physician at one of the large 
camps during the influenza epidemic declared that the 
large number of deaths was due to the fact that the 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 95 

men being away from home, many for the first time, 
and being afraid, "gave up" instead of exercising a 
will power to live. 

It is remarkable what influence the attention has 
been found to have on sensations. When setting our- 
selves to the task it is possible to think into being a 
large variety of sensation experiences. For instance, 
when the attention is concentrated on the hand we can 
feel sensations glide from warm to cold, numbness, 
pins and needles, etc., just as the mind dictates. In 
remembering the sensation associated with eating an 
unpeeled peach, the teeth are set on edge just the same 
as in the actual experience. Some would dismiss all 
this by saying that it is subjective, just imagination, 
but facts encourage us to believe with Tuke that "there 
is a real effect produced upon the finger if thought is 
sufficiently long directed to it, and that these vascular 
changes are felt in the form of throbbing, weight, 
etc." 2 

Science sees also a direct relationship between the 
emotions and the secretive processes. It has been found 
that glands will often secrete freely when there is no 
immediate cause other than some irregular mental ac- 
tivity, like imagination. It has been noticed that the 
mammary glands of a nursing mother will often se- 
crete milk when she thinks of feeding the child. Also 
it is a well-known fact that mental strain will cause 
the hair to turn gray in a very short time. 

It naturally follows that the emotions are being 
closely associated with the work of the digestive ap- 

2 Tuke, Influence of the Mind upon the Body, p. 57. 



96 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

paratus, as they assist or retard the necessary secre- 
tions. The emotions cannot only paralyze the activi- 
ties of the stomach but have a direct influence on the 
entire Alimentary Canal. This is the reason why chil- 
dren should not be fed after being punished or experi- 
encing excitement of any kind. Perhaps the secretions 
of the salivary glands are most noticeably affected by 
the emotions. And just as the mouth becomes dry or 
saliva flows freely according to the emotion experi- 
enced, we get a good idea of how the other secretions, 
such as gastric and pancreatic juices and bile, are influ- 
enced by these psychic states. It is not strange then 
that indigestion in many cases has been traced in its 
origin to psychic irregularities. 

Cannon tells about some very interesting experi- 
ments performed on dogs by Pawlow, showing the 
direct and immediate influence of psychic states on the 
secretions. 3 In the dog's stomach a side pouch was 
made, wholly apart from the main cavity where the 
food entered the stomach. This part which was under 
observation was representative of the entire stomach. 
In some cases during this experiment an opening was 
made in the esophagus so that the food being chewed 
and swallowed would pass out through the opening and 
not reach the stomach at all. This was called "sham 
feeding." In this way all the pleasure of eating was 
experienced without the food getting any further than 
the esophagus. It was found that about five minutes 
after the dogs enjoyed the food and went through the 
process of swallowing, the gastric juice began to flow 

3 Cannon, Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear, and Rage, p. 
4ff. 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 97 

from the pouch in the stomach. This continued as 
long as the dogs ate food and for a short time after 
the meal was eaten. One very interesting thing ob- 
served was that while pleasure encouraged the flow of 
gastric juice, anger or fright had the opposite effect, 
which confirms our statement made above, that certain 
emotions can check secretions and thus interfere with 
the digestion of food. Cannon says that "since the 
flow occurred only when the dogs had an appetite, and 
the material presented to them was agreeable, the con- 
clusion was justified that this was a true psychic secre- 
tion." 4 

The emotions have been found to affect the heart 
also. It will beat faster as it contracts irregularly, if 
the individual is frightened. Dying of a "broken 
heart" as the result of worry and sadness is no mere 
figure of speech. On the other hand the heart often 
has been too severely strained by the sudden announce- 
ment of good news, resulting in death in many cases. 

Mental strain has its definite effects on the liver and 
kidneys. One scientist says that a depressed mind, if 
of a sufficient duration of time, will actually change 
the structure of the liver. In the Medical Times and 
Gazette is published the findings of Dr. Byasson in a 
test made of the renal secretion passed under condi- 
tions of normal quiet and cerebral activity. The sum- 
mary is as follows : 5 

(i) "The exercise of thought was followed by an 
increase in the amount of urine." 

4 Ibid., pp. 5-6. 

5 Quoted from Tuke, p. 135. 



98 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

( 2 ) "The amount o f urea was augmented in a marked 
manner, there being about a drachm more on the day 
of cerebral work than on that of repose." 

(3) "A slight but uniform increase in the amount 
of phosphates and sulphates during mental activity." 

(4) "The density, acidity, the uric acid, lime, mag- 
nesia and potash were scarcely affected. Chlorine was 
less in amount." 

Dr. Byasson states that by a single analysis of the 
urine he is able to tell whether the individual has spent 
the day in repose or mental activity, the diet and en- 
vironment being the same for the three days of test. 6 

In the category of facts which show the controlling 
influence of the psychic states over the body there is 
none more significant than the way emotional experi- 
ences affect the activities of the blood. "Hemorrhage 
is often increased by attention, but whether by excite- 
ment to the heart's action or by direct influence on the 
vessels of the part cannot easily be decided." The fact, 
however concerns us here more than the method. It 
seems that concentration of thought can send blood to 
the place supposed to be affected. The stigmata of 
St. Francis of Assisi has a place in this discussion. 
Some may want to rule out this experience because it 
seems to be so irregular and mysterious. But until 
history can deny the fact it will stand as a remarkable 
illustration of the influence of the mind upon the body. 

Another case of stigmata mentioned by Tuke is that 
of Louise Lateau. When M. Charbonnier presented 
an article to the Royal Academy of Medicine of Bel- 
gium, reviewing the case of Louise, this organization 

6 Quoted from Tuke, p. 135. 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 99 

appointed a Commission to examine her before they 
would accept the article for publication. This Com- 
mission was to see if blood really did ooze from her 
side, feet, hands, and forehead. The examination was 
made while she was going through the experience and 
the blood was flowing from her body. We cannot re- 
view the case in detail here but simply state that the 
conclusion reached by the Commission was that "the 
stigmata and ecstasies are real. They can be explained 
physiologically." 7 In the light of such facts as these 
it is not hard to believe that in the agony of Gethsemane 
Jesus sweat drops of blood. 

One of the most specific effects of emotional ex- 
perience on the blood is to be observed in the adrenal 
glands pouring their secretions into the blood circula- 
tion as the result of psychic excitation. Cannon and 
D. de la Paz have performed experiments in their 
laboratories clearly demonstrating this fact. The ani- 
mal used was a cat. The method used for frightening 
the cat was a barking dog which was allowed to enjoy 
himself at a safe distance while the cat was securely 
fastened in a holder. By a very careful operation 
blood was secured from near the adrenal glands before 
and after the fright of the cat and labeled "quiet 
blood" and "excited blood." In the "excited blood" 
was found a much larger amount of adrenalin. It was 
also observed that the secretion of the adrenal glands 
increased with emotions. Then the glands were re- 
moved with the result that the blood was not then af- 
fected with adrenalin. 

The fact that during these psychic experiences the 

7 Ibid., p. 119. 



100 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

adrenal glands shoot adrenalin into the blood is not the 
whole lesson to be learned by any means. Cannon 
would not feel that this is the "end" attained but sim- 
ply the "means." We learn from him that injecting 
adrenalin into the blood causes the liver to liberate 
sugar into the blood; helps in a faster coagulation; 
drives blood from abdominal viscera into heart, lungs, 
central nervous system, and limbs; acts as an antidote 
for muscular fatigue. So it seems from this and 
other facts which have been set forth that psychic 
activities touch in a concrete way the very last iota of 
being in the body. In other words, psychical energy 
seems to be a genuine fact, constituting the ultimately 
guiding and determining factor in all human experi- 
ences. 

PSYCHICAL ENERGY AND MODERN THOUGHT 

Perhaps from the foregoing it would seem reasona- 
ble to believe that the ultimate quality of reality is 
psychical or spiritual. But let us look at this problem 
a little further, and, studying it in the light of recent 
movements of thought, see if corroboration of our hy- 
pothesis can be obtained. 

DE TUNZELMANN 

According to de Tunzelmann this hypothesis is the 
only alternative. "Schemes have been propounded 
with a view of accounting for the established order of 
Nature without the assumption of a primal intelligence 
... no scheme of the kind has ever been presented 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 101 

which would appear even superficially plausible to any 
but untrained minds. ... In the present state of scien- 
tific knowledge we are justified in maintaining that the 
possibility of such a scheme is unthinkable. ... I 
propose to introduce the concept of an all-pervading 
universal mind or omnipresent intelligence forming an 
entity even more fundamental than the all-pervading 
ether." 8 

BERGSON 

In Bergson's philosophy there is a graded intelli- 
gence which reaches below the animal kingdom. This 
reminds us somewhat of Leibnitz' "confused percep- 
tion" which is met in the lowest type of being. Berg- 
son says : "The more the nervous system develops 
. . . the clearer is the consciousness . . . the lower 
we descend in the animal series the more the nervous 
centers are simplified, till finally the nervous elements 
disappear, merged in the mass of a less differentiated 
organism. But it is the same with all the other appara- 
tus, with all the other anatomical elements; and it 
would be as absurd to refuse consciousness to an animal 
because it has no brain as to declare it incapable of 
nourishing itself because it has no stomach. . . . This 
amounts to saying that the humblest organism is con- 
scious in proportion to its power to move freely. We 
should define the animal by sensibility and awakened 
consciousness, the vegetable by consciousness asleep and 
insensibility." 9 This together with the more elaborate 

8 de Tunzelmann, The Electrical Theory and Problem of the 
Universe, p. 454. 

9 Creative Evolution, pp. 110-112. 



102 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

treatment of Bergson's philosophy in the chapter on 
the history of thought leaves no uncertainty as to his 
belief in psychical being. 



PRAGMATISM 

A similar attitude is met in modern pragmatism. In 
this philosophical system "creative intelligence" is 
championed — a pragmatic theory of intelligence. It 
is an intelligence that "frees action from an instru- 
mental character," that "frees experience from rou- 
tine and caprice"; an intelligence that liberates and 
liberalizes action; an intelligence that is "inherently 
forward looking," which can forecast future possibili- 
ties and can help toward the good. "A pragmatic in- 
telligence is a creative intelligence, not a routine me- 
chanic." 10 In this system the problem of reality is not 
important and hence there is no attempted explanation 
of this creative, evolutionary power. But since it has 
the faculty of discerning the future and distinguishing 
between the desirable and undesirable it must be in- 
terpreted as having a psychical, spiritual nature. 11 

PERRY 

In Perry, an able member of the new realistic group, 
there is evidence of a belief in the presence of psychical 
reality. He says that "as a potentiality without as- 
signable limits it (matter) may be reasonably endowed 

10 Dewey, Creative Intelligence, pp. 63-66. 

11 Compare Lovejoy's Article, Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 17 
(1920), pp. 622-632. 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 103 

with intellectual force as with physical force." 12 Then 
again, he says, "If it is impossible to construe the 
world in terms of thought or in terms of moral life, 
there yet remains a further conception, complete enough 
to embrace these and every other possible value — the 
conception of a universal spiritual life (geistiges 
Leben) that shall be infinitely various and infinitely 
rich." 13 It is not our purpose here to attempt any in- 
terpretation. These statements are simply taken at 
their face value. 



THE IDEALISTS 

What need be said concerning the presence of a spir- 
itual reality in the recent systems of philosophy repre- 
sented by Bowne, Royce, Ward, Richardson, Aliotta, 
Howison, etc. ? To take away belief in a spiritual 
agency would be taking the heart out of these philos- 
ophies. And would it not be difficult to find a modern 
system of thought in which psychical reality does not 
loom up, consciously or unconsciously, as a significant 
fact? 

Here we have proposed to us all kinds of panpsych- 
isms, pantheisms, pancalisms, etc., and hence all the 
phenomenalistic theories of matter. A psychic quality 
in all Nature, however, can hardly be said to be com- 
plete panpsychism. These theories simply represent a 
psychical principle running through all things. Ever 
and anon we meet such beliefs which are looked upon 

12 Perry, Present Philosophical Tendencies, p. 69. 

13 Ibid., p. 153. 



104 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

as panpsychic. In them there is usually the tendency 
to interpret body as phenomenal, thus involving us in a 
epistemological discussion which need not becloud the 
issue. Etymologically speaking, panpsychism is that 
theory which ascribes a psychical nature to the whole 
of being, and should be equivalent to spiritualistic 
monism. And in our endeavor to show, from the 
standpoint of scientific attitude, that there is a psychi- 
cal energy in all Nature, it is imperative that we keep 
in mind that this is not our ultimate objective; al- 
though dealt with in detail it is but a sub-station along 
the way. As we proceed it will be seen that we are ad- 
vocating that genuine panpsychism which says that all 
reality is psychical or spiritual. 

THE UNIVERSALITY OF PSYCHICAL REALITY 

The criticism may possibly be made here that the 
converging lines of testimony which have been offered 
in this chapter and elsewhere to show the presence of 
a psychical, spiritual reality, have to do primarily with 
the higher forms of being in the organic world. But it 
is the belief of many students that the law of analogy 
can be brought into play in this case, and what is true 
of life in the organic world will hold good for all 
forms of being; and as the so-called physical has been 
found to be, seemingly, a medium through which the 
psychical finds expression, it is reasonable to believe 
that this principle prevails in all Nature, holding good 
even throughout the inorganic world. 

The attitude represented in the preceding paragraph 
has the strong backing of science. The law of con- 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 105 

tinuity pertains not only to certain types but reaches 
from the lowest to the highest forms of being, and no 
one can safely attempt to annul this law by postulating 
a line of demarcation between the inorganic and the 
organic worlds. 

Clifford is very definite in his support of this atti- 
tude. He says that "as we go back along the line, the 
complexity of the organism and its nerve-action in- 
sensibly diminishes; and for the first part of our 
course we see reason to think that the complexity of 
consciousness insensibly diminishes also. But if we 
make a jump, say to the tunicate molluscs, we see no 
reason there to infer the existence of consciousness at 
all. Yet not only is it impossible to point out a place 
where any sudden break takes place, but it is contrary 
to all the natural training of our minds to suppose a 
breach of continuity so great. . . . But as the line of 
ascent is unbroken, and must end at last in inorganic 
matter, we have no choice but to admit that every mo- 
tion of matter is simultaneous with some ejective fact 
or event which might be part of a consciousness." 14 

De Tunzeimann also would give a place to the psychi- 
cal element not only in animal life but in all Nature as 
well. He says "there is no way of evading the con- 
clusion that a determining cause must be sought for 
beyond the molecular scheme. There is one and 
only one such course known to us — our own will or 
mind; and the fundamental principles of scientific in- 
vestigation lead us therefore to seek in the extension 
of mind for the determination of the molecular scheme, 
and further, of the whole order of Nature. We find 

14 Clifford, Lectures and Essays, pp. 283-284. 



106 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

that the mental scheme, introduced simply as a work- 
ing hypothesis, proves satisfactory at every point 
where the molecular scheme is found to be insufficient, 
and the attempt to ignore it in the development of any 
scheme attempting to account for the order of Nature, 
will invariably be found to necessitate its introduction 
in some disguised and unscientific manner, which very 
commonly takes the form of personifying natural law, 
one of the worst of pseudo-scientific absurdities." 15 

Royce very earnestly argues against setting the 
lower types of being off to themselves and denying to 
them psychical activities. He says the doctrine of evo- 
lution helps to bridge the gulf between the two extremes 
in Nature — mind and matter. "Between what seems 
to us, from our ordinary social point of view the high- 
est of accessible mental life, and what we take to be 
the manifestations of lifeless matter, there is, in the 
process of mental evolution apparently no breach of 
continuity anywhere. ... It is precisely this ap- 
parent continuity which is the most impressive of all 
the inductions that the study of evolution has lately 
forced upon the attention of all who have taken Na- 
ture at all seriously." 16 "When we see inorganic 
Nature seemingly dead, there is, in fact, conscious life 
just as surely as there is any Being present in Nature 
at all." 17 

The same elements are represented in minerals, 
plants, and animals; they are simply organized differ- 
ently. Minerals get their subsistence by feeding on 
materials about them in just as real a sense as the 

15 de Tunzelmann, p. 461. 

16 Royce, The World and the Individual, Vol. I, p. 210. 

17 Ibid., p. 240. 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 107 

highest developed forms of life, only the method is 
more crude. There is a general process of feeding 
going all the time. It is a very fundamental fact in 
agriculture that the soil gets its nourishment from 
plants, animals, etc. Plants depend for nourishment 
on the air, moisture, and soil. Animals in turn feed 
on plants and other animals. Most plants, however, 
"feed at a lower chemical level than do animals." "It 
has been recognized that the beech-tree feeds and 
grows, digests and breathes, as really as does the squir- 
rel on its branches : that in regard to none of the main- 
functions (except excretion, which plants have little 
of) is there any essential difference." 18 

In science illustrations of analogy are not wanting 
which show that the same deep principles which pre- 
vail in the organic world are found in the inorganic 
as well. We see this analogy in the fact that if a 
block of any one of the thousand minerals known to 
science, quartz for instance, were broken into myriads 
of pieces, every particle would be found to be a perfect 
crystal, just the same as the original, which suggests 
a similarity to the fact that if a starfish were torn into 
shreds, every piece would regenerate itself and form a 
starfish again. If we were to take this same piece of 
quartz and put it into running water it would become 
sand-grains. If then these sand-grains were put in 
the proper environment where they would have access 
to food, they would regenerate themselves and go back 
to crystal forms. 

Science discusses this whole question as the tendency 
of all things, inorganic as well as organic, to adjust 

18 Thomson and Geddes, Evolution, p. 78. 



108 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

themselves to their environment, the only difference be- 
tween the two being that the inorganic is slower than 
the organic in this respect. In concluding a lecture on 
evolution in general and life in particular Kay says 
"there is then a continuity in the development of the 
earth, and the inorganic world is just as wonderful as 
the organic." If scientific thinkers of this attitude are 
correct, and we have no reasons to disbelieve 'their 
findings, then even in the inorganic world there is met 
teleology, and immanent teleology is difficult to con- 
ceive apart from a psychical activity. 

So it is evident that in science and philosophy there 
is strong opposition to the idea of separating the in- 
organic from the organic world; it is just like trying 
to divide the bud from the blossom. If evolution is 
right in teaching that higher forms come from the 
lower, that the organic has evolved from the inorganic 
level, then the inorganic world has always held wrapped 
up within itself the potentialities of higher developed 
life, and even to-day must have in itself possibilities 
yet to be unfolded. The only difference between the 
two is that in the organic we have a higher develop- 
ment or organization of energy units. Thus it seems 
reasonable to believe that what holds good for the 
organic world holds good for every form of being; if 
psychical energy is dominant in one type, it is domi- 
nant in all. 



PSYCHICAL ENERGY AS THE ONLY REALITY 

The dualist, however, might suggest the possibility 
of spirit being the directing element and matter the 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 109 

thing directed, without making spirit the only reality. 
But the materialist and dualist, in clinging to matter 
as a final reality will have a difficult task in endeavor- 
ing to harmonize their philosophy with the modern be- 
lief in the energy concept, for the conception of mat- 
ter as a static, fixed substance will not stand in the 
face of progress made by science in recent times. 
Modern thought points the other way. "It is the dis- 
covery of living processes of incessant adjustment and 
adaptation, rather than of sequences purely mathema- 
tical and mechanical, which has in recent years been 
the source of philosophical reaction." 19 This attitude 
is endorsed by Woodbridge, who says "this is the one 
valuable and significant thing in modern philos- 
ophy/' 20 

So the question arises at this time as to what that 
something is, which has been designated as physical or 
material and which seems to be the means by which 
the psychical achieves its ends. As the psychical is 
understood to unfold itself in every part of the organ- 
ism, it makes us wonder whether the old hypothesis of 
mind and matter is not wrong after all. The relation- 
ship between mind and body seems too smooth, too 
perfect for two different entities to be rubbing up 
against each other. Facts point to the existence of a 
single substance. 

In Part I we showed the strong monistic tendency 
of scientific thought, culminating in the belief that 
reality is energy. Science to-day is inclined toward a 
monism, a monism of energy. It has been found that 

19 Adams, Idealism and the Modern Age, p. 98. 

20 Woodbridge, Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scien- 
tific Methods, Vol. XIV, p. 378. 



110 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

in the last analysis of things we come face to face with 
the electrons which are but charges of electricity, a 
form of energy. No such distinction is made as psych- 
ical and physical energy. All the electrons are the 
same, no matter where found. The atoms differ only 
in the groupings of electrons constituting them. 

If monism is correct, then, it would hardly be pos- 
sible for everything to be material because modern 
thought, as has been shown in detail, believes in the 
presence and priority of psychical activities, of spirit. 
On the basis of a monism of energy it is perhaps rea- 
sonable to doubt whether there is such a thing as physi- 
cal energy. In other words, we come to that place 
where it is fair to question the existence of genuine 
matter. But on the other hand it would seem incon- 
sistent to question the reality of psychical energy; we 
have found facts pointing to a psychical energy at 
work and should feel kindly disposed toward a belief 
in its reality. We are therefore inclined to believe 
with Huxley that "Matter and Force are, as far as 
we know, mere names for certain forms of conscious- 
ness." "We find ourselves forced to interpret Nature 
... as an orderly realm of genuine conscious life, one 
of whose products, expressions and examples we find 
in the mind of man." 21 This is equivalent to saying 
that the same thing which has been called body or 
matter and through which mind seems to find expres- 
sion is also of a psychical nature. These things being 
true, it is in a spiritualistic monism then that Nature 
seemingly finds its correct classification. 

21 Royce, World and Individual, p. 242. 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 111 

ORGANIZED PSYCHICAL ENERGY AS A THEORY 
OF REALITY 

Facts indicate that Leibnitz was working on the 
right principle. He resolves everything into monads, 
centers of psychical, spiritual force. In the very low- 
est types of being we find a group of monads cluster- 
ing about a governing or central monad. This group 
with other groups gather about a still more important 
central soul; and so on until we come to the highest 
type of being as found in mind and represented by 
consciousness. The monads surrounding the central 
monads or souls are continually changing but the gov- 
erning souls never change. Here we have a world 
alive with thought, ranging from the lowest, confused 
perception, up to mind as consciousness. 

The further we go into the study of reality the 
more it seems that it is a program something 
like that of Leibnitz which will stand the test of 
time. Science finds that there are central cells 
something like those to which Leibnitz refers. "There 
is a popular fallacy in lay minds that the whole 
human body is replaced by fresh material in a period 
which by some whimsical fancy has been fixed at seven 
years. As a matter of fact some cells are formed, 
pass to maturity, and perish almost daily, while others 
last as long as the animal itself. . . . These master 
cells are to be found in the brain and other parts of the 
central nervous system, in arterial walls, and in mech- 
anisms which control the heart." 22 Starbuck says "the 
parts in the finer anatomy which are especially essen- 

22 Moore, The Origin and Nature of Life, p. 45. 



112 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 

tial to mental activity are the cells for generating and 
storing nervous energy, and a rich network of nerve 
fibers with fatty wrappings for conducting the energy 
from one part of the brain to another." 23 

Hence we are led to a new conception of the human 
body, seeing it as an intricate organisation of psychical 
energy, in which can be found many minor groupings 
or systems of more or less importance. Probably in 
the lower organisms of the body we could find energy 
units of the simplest organization gathering about the 
most inferior cells, and in coming up through the more 
complex systems connected with the more important 
cells, finally find the whole system culminating in the 
cells having to do with the brain. 

This is not unlike Hughlings Jackson's theory of 
"levels" or Flechsig's "associated centers." With 
Jackson the lowest level heads up in the spinal cord, 
medulla and pons and has to do with the simplest ac- 
tivities of the body. The second level represents a 
higher organization of relationships; and the third, 
the highest, is supreme in heading up the entire nervous 
system and represents mind. 

We have shown that science believes that the same 
principle of psychical activity is fundamental to all 
being, animate and inanimate; to all bodies, organic 
and inorganic. It seems reasonable then to accept that 
system which sees in all Nature a vast organization of 
psychical units of energy, which amounts to saying 
that energy operates as a spiritual force. According 
to this conception we meet in the lowest types of being 
the most inferior organizations of energy units, the 
units of every single body clustering about a governing 

23 Starbuck, The Psychology of Religion, pp. 149-150. 



THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 113 

nucleus or cell. And as we come up through the series 
we meet the more complex groupings of energy units 
until finally in the consciousness of mind is met the 
highest degree of organization in all Nature. 

Having come thus far, it would seem consistent in 
this hypothesis to take another step and suggest a great 
Mind or Spirit, in which is realized absolute conscious- 
ness, dominating the world of spiritual energy. This 
being accepted, we should have a common meeting 
ground for scientific thought and those religious be- 
liefs which represent the deeper intimations of human- 
ity, even though science should see it as an over-belief 
and theology should interpret it as a fact of experience. 
Here then the religious devotee would be led to speak 
in terms of energetic Spirit instead of an absentee God, 
and the scientist in terms of spiritual energy rather 
than materialism and mechanism. 

It is further possible in this program of evolving 
spiritual energy for the adherent of the Christian faith 
to believe it was at that place where in the process of 
development from the "dust of the earth" man came 
into consciousness, that the great Spirit began to deal 
with man as a person and that Biblical literature be- 
gins its history of the human race; that it was when 
man stepped forth a conscious being he became a 
living soul, made in the image of God. In this vast 
system then the mind of man stands above all organi- 
zations of spiritual forces, crowning the network of 
Nature's activities. This most highly organized sys- 
tem of spiritual energy as represented in human con- 
sciousness is probably the only organization of spirit 
which knows no dissolution, making possible for man 
the experience of immortality. 



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